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83-551: The Gurkhas or Gorkhas ( / ˈ ɡ ɜːr k ə , ˈ ɡ ʊər -/ ), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali : गोर्खाली [ɡorkʰali] ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent , chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India . The Gurkha units are composed of Nepali and Indian Gorkha , Nepali-speaking Indian people, and are recruited for the Nepali Army (96,000),

166-696: A pejorative way. For example, Romani people often prefer that term to exonyms such as Gypsy (from the name of Egypt ), and the French term bohémien , bohème (from the name of Bohemia ). People may also avoid exonyms for reasons of historical sensitivity, as in the case of German names for Polish and Czech places that, at one time, had been ethnically or politically German (e.g. Danzig/ Gdańsk , Auschwitz/ Oświęcim and Karlsbad/ Karlovy Vary ); and Russian names for non-Russian locations that were subsequently renamed or had their spelling changed (e.g. Kiev/ Kyiv ). In recent years, geographers have sought to reduce

249-481: A "Viceroy's Commission", distinct from the King's or Queen's Commission that British officers serving with a Gurkha regiment held. Any Gurkha holding a commission was technically subordinate to any British officer, regardless of rank. Viceroy Commissioned Officers (VCOs) up to 1947 and Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) from 1947: Warrant officers Non-commissioned officers Private soldiers Notes Bravest of

332-658: A different writing system. For instance, Deutschland is the endonym for the country that is also known by the exonyms Germany and Germania in English and Italian , respectively, Alemania and Allemagne in Spanish and French , respectively, Niemcy in Polish , Saksa and Saksamaa in Finnish and Estonian . The terms autonym , endonym , exonym and xenonym are formed by adding specific prefixes to

415-491: A feature that later became known as "Gurkha Bluff". At Sari Bair they were the only troops in the whole campaign to reach and hold the crest line and look down on the straits, which was the ultimate objective. The 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Gurkha Rifles (2nd/3rd Gurkha Rifles) fought in the conquest of Baghdad . Following the end of the war, the Gurkhas were returned to India, and during the inter-war years were largely kept away from

498-399: A major role at Delhi during 1857 . Young also assisted Frederick John Shore during the campaign against a gurjar leader in 1824 at Saharanpur. In December 1849 Young was diverted from Dinapore to Darjeeling to prepare for an invasion of Sikkim following the hostage situation involving the botanist Joseph Hooker . Young was a keen sport hunter and along with Frederick Shore he set up

581-587: A man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha." Historically, the terms "Gurkha" and "Gorkhali" were synonymous with "Nepali", which originates from the hill principality Gorkha Kingdom , from which the Kingdom of Nepal expanded under Prithvi Narayan Shah , who was the last ruler of the Gorkha Kingdom and first monarch of the Kingdom of Nepal . In fact, the Gorkhas’ impressive conquests of

664-554: A neutral name may be preferred so as to not offend anyone. Thus, an exonym such as Brussels in English could be used instead of favoring either one of the local names ( Dutch / Flemish : Brussel ; French : Bruxelles ). Other difficulties with endonyms have to do with pronunciation, spelling, and word category . The endonym may include sounds and spellings that are highly unfamiliar to speakers of other languages, making appropriate usage difficult if not impossible for an outsider. Over

747-988: A total of 20 pre-war battalions. Following the Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in 1940, the Nepalese government offered to increase recruitment to enlarge the number of Gurkha battalions in British service to 35. This would eventually rise to 43 battalions. In order to achieve the increased number of battalions, third and fourth battalions were raised for all ten regiments, with fifth battalions also being raised for 1 GR, 2 GR and 9 GR. This expansion required ten training centers to be established for basic training and regimental records across India. In addition, five training battalions (14 GR, 29 GR, 38 GR, 56 GR and 710 GR) were raised, while other units (25 GR and 26 GR) were raised as garrison battalions for keeping

830-471: A well trained, dedicated and disciplined body whose principal role is as riot police and counter-terrorism force. In times of crisis it can be deployed as a reaction force. During the turbulent years before and after independence, the GC acquitted itself well on several occasions during outbreaks of civil disorder. The Gurkhas displayed the courage, self-restraint and professionalism for which they are famous and earned

913-653: Is derived from raksha as well. There are Gurkha military units in the Nepalese , British and Indian armies enlisted in Nepal, United Kingdom, India and Singapore. Although they meet many of the criteria of Article 47 of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions regarding mercenaries , they are exempt under clauses 47(e) and (f) , similar to the French Foreign Legion . During the 1814–16 Anglo-Nepalese War between

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996-462: Is most commonly used. The changes to Hanyu Pinyin were not only financially costly but were unpopular with the locals, who opined that the Hanyu Pinyin versions were too difficult for non-Chinese or non-Mandarin speakers to pronounce. The government eventually stopped the changes by the 1990s, which has led to some place names within a locality having differing spellings. For example, Nee Soon Road and

1079-698: Is not its Dutch exonym. Old place names that have become outdated after renaming may afterward still be used as historicisms . For example, even today one would talk about the Siege of Leningrad , not the Siege of St. Petersburg because at that time (1941–1944) the city was called Leningrad. Likewise, one would say that Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in 1724, not in Kaliningrad ( Калининград ), as it has been called since 1946. Likewise, Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul )

1162-554: Is now spelled Xinyi . However, districts like Tamsui and even Taipei itself are not spelled according to Hanyu Pinyin spelling rules. As a matter of fact, most names of Taiwanese cities are still spelled using Chinese postal romanization , including Taipei , Taichung , Taitung , Keelung , and Kaohsiung . During the 1980s, the Singapore Government encouraged the use of Hanyu Pinyin spelling for place names, especially those with Teochew, Hokkien or Cantonese names, as part of

1245-540: Is still called Constantinople ( Κωνσταντινούπολη ) in Greek, although the name was changed in Turkish to dissociate the city from its Greek past between 1923 and 1930 (the name Istanbul itself derives from a Medieval Greek phrase ). Prior to Constantinople , the city was known in Greek as Byzantion ( Greek : Βυζάντιον , Latin : Byzantium ), named after its mythical founder, Byzas . Following independence from

1328-559: Is the human tendency towards neighbours to "be pejorative rather than complimentary, especially where there is a real or fancied difference in cultural level between the ingroup and the outgroup ." For example, Matisoff notes, Khang "an opprobrious term indicating mixed race or parentage" is the Palaung name for Jingpo people and the Jingpo name for Chin people ; both the Jingpo and Burmese use

1411-646: The Beijing dialect , became the official romanization method for Mandarin in the 1970s. As the Mandarin pronunciation does not perfectly map to an English phoneme , English speakers using either romanization will not pronounce the names correctly if standard English pronunciation is used. Nonetheless, many older English speakers still refer to the cities by their older English names, and even today they are often used in their traditional associations, such as Peking duck , Peking opera , and Peking University . As for Nanjing,

1494-741: The Gorkha Kingdom and the East India Company , the Gorkhali soldiers impressed the British, who called them Gurkhas . The Anglo-Nepalese War was fought between the Gurkha Kingdom of Nepal and the British East India Company as a result of border disputes and ambitious expansionism of both belligerents. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816. David Ochterlony and British political agent William Fraser were among

1577-602: The Greek root word ónoma ( ὄνομα , 'name'), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nómn̥ . The prefixes added to these terms are also derived from Greek: The terms autonym and xenonym also have different applications, thus leaving endonym and exonym as the preferred forms. Marcel Aurousseau , an Australian geographer , first used the term exonym in his work The Rendering of Geographical Names (1957). Endonyms and exonyms can be divided in three main categories: As it pertains to geographical features ,

1660-743: The Indian Army (42,000), the British Army (4,010), the Gurkha Contingent in Singapore , the Gurkha Reserve Unit in Brunei , for UN peacekeeping forces and in war zones around the world. Gurkhas are closely associated with the khukuri , a forward-curving knife, and have a reputation for fearless military prowess. Former Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once stated that: "If

1743-593: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 , Gurkhas fought on the British side and became part of the British Indian Army on its formation. The 8th (Sirmoor) Local Battalion made a notable contribution during the conflict, and 25 Indian Order of Merit awards were made to men from that regiment during the Siege of Delhi. Three days after the rebellion began, the Sirmoor Battalion was ordered to move to Meerut, where

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1826-513: The Roman Empire applied the word " Walha " to foreigners they encountered and this evolved in West Germanic languages as a generic name for speakers of Celtic and later (as Celts became increasingly romanised) Romance languages; thence: During the late 20th century, the use of exonyms often became controversial. Groups often prefer that outsiders avoid exonyms where they have come to be used in

1909-543: The Singapore Armed Forces base Nee Soon Camp are both located in Yishun but retained the old spelling. 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'." In Basque , the term erdara/erdera is used for speakers of any language other than Basque (usually Spanish or French). Many millennia earlier,

1992-510: The Slavs are describing Germanic people as "mutes"—in contrast to themselves, "the speaking ones". The most common names of several Indigenous American tribes derive from pejorative exonyms. The name " Apache " most likely derives from a Zuni word meaning "enemy". The name " Sioux ", an abbreviated form of Nadouessioux , most likely derived from a Proto-Algonquian term, * -a·towe· ('foreign-speaking). The name " Comanche " comes from

2075-532: The Speak Mandarin Campaign to promote Mandarin and discourage the use of dialects. For example, the area of Nee Soon, named after Teochew -Peranakan businessman Lim Nee Soon (Hanyu Pinyin: Lín Yìshùn) became Yishun and the neighbourhood schools and places established following the change used the Hanyu Pinyin spelling. In contrast, Hougang is the Hanyu Pinyin spelling but the Hokkien pronunciation au-kang

2158-524: The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names defines: For example, India , China , Egypt , and Germany are the English-language exonyms corresponding to the endonyms Bhārat ( भारत ), Zhōngguó ( 中国 ), Masr ( مَصر ), and Deutschland , respectively. There are also typonyms of specific features, for example hydronyms for bodies of water. In

2241-508: The Ute word kɨmantsi meaning "enemy, stranger". The Ancestral Puebloans are also known as the "Anasazi", a Navajo word meaning "ancient enemies", and contemporary Puebloans discourage the use of the exonym. 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. Although

2324-557: The "language". The term survives to this day in the Slavic languages (e.g. Ukrainian німці (nimtsi); Russian немцы (nemtsy), Slovene Nemčija), and was borrowed into Hungarian , 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 slovo (hence " Slovakia " and " Slovenia " for example), meaning 'word' or 'speech'. In this context,

2407-678: The 36th Engineer Regiment. Since then, British Gurkhas have served in Borneo during the confrontation with Indonesia, in the Falklands War and on various peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone , East Timor , Bosnia and Kosovo . Major Gurkha Formations: As of August 2021, the Brigade of Gurkhas in the British Army has the following units: The Brigade of Gurkhas also has its own chefs posted among

2490-691: The British garrison was barely holding on, and in doing so they had to march up to 48 kilometres a day. Later, during the four-month Siege of Delhi, they defended Hindu Rao 's house, losing 327 of 490 men. During this action they fought side by side with the 60th Rifles and a strong bond developed. Twelve regiments from the Nepalese Army also took part in the relief of Lucknow under the command of Shri Teen (3) Maharaja Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal and his older brother C-in-C Ranodip Singh Kunwar (Ranaudip Singh Bahadur Rana) (later to succeed Jung Bahadur and become Sri Teen Maharaja Ranodip Singh of Nepal). After

2573-812: The Chinese word yeren ( 野人 ; 'wild men', 'savage', 'rustic people' ) as the name for Lisu people . As exonyms develop for places of significance for speakers of the language of the exonym, consequently, many European capitals have English exonyms, for example: In contrast, historically less-prominent capitals such as Ljubljana and Zagreb do not have English exonyms, but do have exonyms in languages spoken nearby, e.g. German : Laibach and Agram (the latter being obsolete); Italian : Lubiana and Zagabria . Madrid , Berlin , Oslo , and Amsterdam , with identical names in most major European languages , are exceptions. Some European cities might be considered partial exceptions, in that whilst

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2656-505: The German defences, and in the words of the Indian Corps commander, Lt. Gen. Sir James Willcocks , "found its Valhalla". During the unsuccessful Gallipoli Campaign in 1915, the Gurkhas were among the first to arrive and the last to leave. The 1st/6th Gurkhas, having landed at Cape Helles , led the assault during the first major operation to take a Turkish high point, and in doing so captured

2739-638: The Greeks thought that all non-Greeks were uncultured and so called them " barbarians ", which eventually gave rise to the exonym " Berber ". Exonyms often describe others as "foreign-speaking", "non-speaking", or "nonsense-speaking". One example is the Slavic term for the Germans, nemtsi , possibly deriving from plural of nemy ("mute"); standard etymology has it that the Slavic peoples referred to their Germanic neighbors as "mutes" because they could not speak

2822-601: The Gurkha regiments were renumbered from the 1st to the 10th and re-designated as the Gurkha Rifles. In this time the Brigade of Gurkhas, as the regiments came to be collectively known, was expanded to 20 battalions in the ten regiments. During World War I (1914–1918) more than 200,000 Gurkhas served in the British Army, suffering approximately 20,000 casualties and receiving almost 2,000 gallantry awards. The number of Gurkha battalions

2905-498: The Indian Army had a Gorkha contingent that numbered around 42,000 men in 46 battalions, spread across seven regiments. Although their deployment is still governed by the 1947 Tripartite Agreement, in the post-1947 conflicts India has fought in, Gorkhas have served in almost all of them, including the wars with Pakistan in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 and also against China in 1962. They have also been used in peacekeeping operations around

2988-648: The Japanese in the jungles of Burma , northeast India and also Singapore . They did so with distinction, earning 2,734 bravery awards in the process and suffering around 32,000 casualties in all theatres. Gurkha ranks in the British Indian Army followed the same pattern as those used throughout the rest of the Indian Army at that time. As in the British Army itself, there were three distinct levels: private soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and commissioned officers. Gurkha commissioned officers in Gurkha regiments held

3071-625: The Kathmandu Valley supplied the British with an exaggerated view of Nepal’s strength, ultimately helping lead to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814-1816) . The name may be traced to the medieval Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath who has a historic shrine in Gorkha District . The word itself derived from Go-Raksha ( Nepali : गोरक्षा i.e., 'Protector (रक्षा) of cows (गो')), raksha becoming rakha (रखा). Rakhawala means 'protector' and

3154-601: The Portuguese Colónia closely reflects the Latin original. In some cases, no standardised spelling is available, either because the language itself is unwritten (even unanalysed) or because there are competing non-standard spellings. Use of a misspelled endonym is perhaps more problematic than the respectful use of an existing exonym. Finally, an endonym may be a plural noun and may not naturally extend itself to adjectival usage in another language like English, which has

3237-519: The Province of Guangdong ( 广东 ; Guǎngdōng ). However, older English exonyms are sometimes used in certain contexts, for example: Peking (Beijing; duck , opera , etc.), Tsingtao (Qingdao), and Canton (Guangdong). In some cases the traditional English exonym is based on a local Chinese variety instead of Mandarin , in the case of Xiamen , where the name Amoy is closer to the Hokkien pronunciation. In

3320-501: The Russians used the village name of Chechen , medieval Europeans took the tribal name Tatar as emblematic for the whole Mongolic confederation (and then confused it with Tartarus , a word for Hell , to produce Tartar ), and the Magyar invaders were equated with the 500-years-earlier Hunnish invaders in the same territory, and were called Hungarians . The Germanic invaders of

3403-732: The Sirmoor Battalion, later to become the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles . An additional battalion—the Kumaon—was also raised, eventually becoming the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles . None of these units fought in the second campaign. Gurkhas served as troops under contract to the British East India Company in the Pindaree War of 1817, in Bharatpur in 1826, and the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars in 1846 and 1848. During

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3486-603: The Sirmoor Regiment at Nahan in Sirmoor State in 1815. He was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain in 1821, Major in 1826, and Lt. Col. in 1830. He served as a political agent for Dehra Dun from 1829 which also became the home of the regiment. The regiment of about 3000 soldiers was to prompt Young to say that "I came there one man, and I came back three thousand". They saw action during the Third Mahratta War and played

3569-522: The Tripartite Agreement was to ensure that Gurkhas serving under the Crown would be paid on the same scale as those serving in the new Indian Army. This was significantly lower than the standard British rates of pay. While the difference is made up through cost of living and location allowances during a Gurkha's actual period of service, the pension payable on his return to Nepal is much lower than would be

3652-451: The UK in 1947, many regions and cities have been renamed in accordance with local languages, or to change the English spelling to more closely match the indigenous local name. The name Madras , now Chennai , may be a special case . When the city was first settled by English people , in the early 17th century, both names were in use. They possibly referred to different villages which were fused into

3735-405: The above-mentioned units. Gurkhas were among the troops who retook the Falklands in 1982 and have served a number of tours of duty in the War in Afghanistan . Upon independence in 1947, six of the original ten Gurkha regiments remained with the Indian Army . These regiments were: Additionally, a further regiment, 11 Gorkha Rifles , was raised. In 1949 the spelling was changed from "Gurkha" to

3818-502: The army. They discouraged Brahminical influence in the military and considered the Hindu castes more susceptible to Brahminical values. As a result, they discouraged the inclusion of Thakuri and Khas groups in the Gorkha units and refused to recruit tribes other than Gurungs and Magars for Gorkha units. They also exerted diplomatic pressure on Prime Minister Bir Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana to ensure that at least 75% of new recruits were Gurungs and Magars . Between 1901 and 1906,

3901-406: The battles of Loos , Givenchy , and Neuve Chapelle ; in Belgium at the battle of Ypres ; in Iraq , Persia , Suez Canal and Palestine against Turkish advance, Gallipoli and Salonika . One detachment served with Lawrence of Arabia . During the Battle of Loos (June–December 1915) a battalion of the 8th Gurkhas fought to the last man, hurling themselves time after time against the weight of

3984-479: The brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you. Under the Tripartite Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom, India and Nepal after Indian independence and the partition of India , the original ten Gurkha regiments consisting of the 20 pre-war battalions were split between the British Army and the newly independent Indian Army . Six Gurkha regiments (12 battalions) were transferred to

4067-411: The case for his British counterparts. With the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy in 2008, the future recruitment of Gurkhas for British and Indian service was initially put into doubt. A spokesperson for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (later the "Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)"), which was expected to play a major role in the new secular republic, stated that recruitment as mercenaries

4150-430: The case of Beijing , the adoption of the exonym by media outlets quickly gave rise to a hyperforeignised pronunciation, with the result that many English speakers actualize the j in Beijing as / ʒ / . One exception of Pinyin standardization in mainland China is the spelling of the province Shaanxi , which is the mixed Gwoyeu Romatzyh –Pinyin spelling of the province. That is because if Pinyin were used to spell

4233-409: The case of endonyms and exonyms of language names (glossonyms), Chinese , German , and Dutch , for example, are English-language exonyms for the languages that are endonymously known as Zhōngwén ( 中文 ), Deutsch , and Nederlands , respectively. By their relation to endonyms, all exonyms can be divided into three main categories: Sometimes, a place name may be unable to use many of

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4316-760: The endonym Nederland is singular, while all the aforementioned translations except Irish are plural. Exonyms can also be divided into native and borrowed, e.g., from a third language. For example, the Slovene exonyms Dunaj ( Vienna ) and Benetke ( Venice ) are native, but the Avar name of Paris, Париж ( Parizh ) is borrowed from Russian Париж ( Parizh ), which comes from Polish Paryż , which comes from Italian Parigi . A substantial proportion of English-language exonyms for places in continental Europe are borrowed (or adapted) from French; for example: Many exonyms result from adaptations of an endonym into another language, mediated by differences in phonetics, while others may result from translation of

4399-404: The endonym, or as a reflection of the specific relationship an outsider group has with a local place or geographical feature. According to James Matisoff , who introduced the term autonym into linguistics , exonyms can also arise from the "egocentric" tendency of in-groups to identify themselves with "mankind in general", producing an endonym that out groups would not use, while another source

4482-419: The first to recognize the potential of Gurkha soldiers. During the war the British used defectors from the Gurkha army and employed them as irregular forces . Fraser's confidence in their loyalty was such that in April 1815 he proposed forming them into a battalion under Lt. Ross called the Nasiri Regiment. This regiment, which later became the 1st King George's Own Gurkha Rifles , saw action at Malaun Fort under

4565-403: The founder of the Sirmoor Battalion later 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) , the first Gurkha regiment to fight for the British. He also established a hunting lodge in Mussoorie along with Frederick John Shore which was a precursor to the development of the area as a British settlement. He is considered as the founder of the British settlement at Mussoorie. Young

4648-405: The frontier. They kept the peace among the local populace and engaged with the lawless and often openly hostile Pathan tribesmen . During this time the North-West Frontier was the scene of considerable political and civil unrest and troops stationed at Razmak, Bannu, and Wanna saw extensive action. During World War II (1939–1945) there were ten Gurkha regiments, with two battalions each, making

4731-436: The historical event called the Nanking Massacre (1937) uses the city's older name because that was the name of the city at the time of occurrence. Likewise, many Korean cities like Busan and Incheon (formerly Pusan and Inchǒn respectively) also underwent changes in spelling due to changes in romanization, even though the Korean pronunciations have largely stayed the same. Exonyms and endonyms must not be confused with

4814-455: The internal strife and urban conflicts of the sub-continent, instead being employed largely on the frontiers and in the hills where fiercely independent tribesmen were a constant source of trouble. As such, between the World Wars the Gurkha regiments fought in the Third Afghan War in 1919. The regiments then participated in numerous campaigns on the North-West Frontier, mainly in Waziristan , where they were employed as garrison troops defending

4897-468: The leadership of Lt. Lawtie, who reported to Ochterlony that he "had the greatest reason to be satisfied with their exertions". About 5,000 men entered British service in 1815, most of whom were not just Gorkhalis, but Kumaonis, Garhwalis and other Himalayan hill men. These groups, eventually lumped together under the term Gurkha , became the backbone of British Indian forces. As well as Ochterlony's Gurkha battalions, Fraser and Lt. Frederick Young raised

4980-657: The letters when transliterated into an exonym because of the corresponding language's lack of common sounds. Māori , having only one liquid consonant , is an example of this here. London (originally Latin : Londinium ), for example, is known by the cognate exonyms: An example of a translated exonym is the name for the Netherlands ( Nederland in Dutch) used, respectively, in German ( Niederlande ), French ( Pays-Bas ), Italian ( Paesi Bassi ), Spanish ( Países Bajos ), Irish ( An Ísiltír ), Portuguese ( Países Baixos ) and Romanian ( Țările de Jos ), all of which mean " Low Countries ". However,

5063-421: The new settlement. In any case, Madras became the exonym, while more recently, Chennai became the endonym. Madrasi, a term for a native of the city, has often been used derogatorily to refer to the people of Dravidian origin from the southern states of India . Frederick Young (soldier) Frederick Young (30 November 1786 – 22 May 1874) was an East India Company army officer from Ireland who became

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5146-434: The number of exonyms were over-optimistic and not possible to realise in an intended way. The reason would appear to be that many exonyms have become common words in a language and can be seen as part of the language's cultural heritage. In some situations, the use of exonyms can be preferred. For instance, in multilingual cities such as Brussels , which is known for its linguistic tensions between Dutch- and French-speakers,

5229-447: The original "Gorkha". All royal titles were dropped when India became a republic in 1950. Since partition, the Gurkha regiments that were transferred to the Indian Army have established themselves as a permanent and vital part of the newly independent Indian Army. Indeed, while Britain has reduced its Gurkha contingent, India has continued to recruit Gorkhas of Nepal into Gorkha regiments in large numbers, as well as Indian Gorkhas. In 2009

5312-495: The peace in India and defending rear areas. Large numbers of Gurkha men were also recruited for non-Gurkha units, and other specialized duties such as paratroops, signals, engineers and military police. A total of 250,280 Gurkhas served in 40 battalions, plus eight Nepalese Army battalions, parachute, training, garrison and porter units during the war, in almost all theatres. In addition to keeping peace in India, Gurkhas fought in Syria , North Africa , Italy , Greece and against

5395-523: The post-independence Indian Army, while four regiments (eight battalions) were transferred to the British Army. To the disappointment of many of their British officers, the majority of Gurkhas given a choice between British or Indian Army service opted for the latter. The reason appears to have been the pragmatic one that the Gurkha regiments of the Indian Army would continue to serve in their existing roles in familiar territory and under terms and conditions that were well established. The only substantial change

5478-437: The pronunciation for several names of Chinese cities such as Beijing and Nanjing has not changed for quite some time while in Mandarin Chinese (although the prestige dialect shifted from Nanjing dialect to Beijing dialect during the 19th century), they were called Peking and Nanking in English due to the older Chinese postal romanization convention, based largely on the Nanjing dialect . Pinyin , based largely on

5561-520: The propensity to use the adjectives for describing culture and language. Sometimes the government of a country tries to endorse the use of an endonym instead of traditional exonyms outside the country: Following the 1979 declaration of Hanyu Pinyin spelling as the standard romanisation of Chinese , many Chinese endonyms have successfully replaced English exonyms, especially city and most provincial names in mainland China , for example: Beijing ( 北京 ; Běijīng ), Qingdao ( 青岛 ; Qīngdǎo ), and

5644-410: The province, it would be indistinguishable from its neighboring province Shanxi , where the pronunciations of the two provinces only differ by tones, which are usually not written down when used in English. In Taiwan, however, the standardization of Hanyu Pinyin has only seen mixed results. In Taipei , most (but not all) street and district names shifted to Hanyu Pinyin. For example, the Sinyi District

5727-420: The rebellion the 60th Rifles pressed for the Sirmoor Battalion to become a rifle regiment. This honour was granted in 1858 when the battalion was renamed the Sirmoor Rifle Regiment and awarded a third colour. In 1863, Queen Victoria presented the regiment with the Queen's Truncheon , as a replacement for the colours that rifle regiments do not usually have. From the end of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 until

5810-515: The respect of the society at large. Endonym An exonym (also known as xenonym ) is an established, non-native name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used primarily outside the particular place inhabited by the group or linguistic community. Exonyms exist not only for historico-geographical reasons but also in consideration of difficulties when pronouncing foreign words, or from non-systematic attempts at transcribing into

5893-444: The results of geographical renaming as in the case of Saint Petersburg , which became Petrograd ( Петроград ) in 1914, Leningrad ( Ленинград ) in 1924, and again Saint Petersburg ( Санкт-Петербург , Sankt-Peterbúrg ) in 1991. In this case, although Saint Petersburg has a Dutch etymology, it was never a Dutch exonym for the city between 1914 and 1991, just as Nieuw Amsterdam , the Dutch name of New York City until 1664,

5976-470: The spelling is the same across languages, the pronunciation can differ. For example, the city of Paris is spelled the same way in French and English, but the French pronunciation [ paʁi ] is different from the English pronunciation [ ˈpærɪs ]. For places considered to be of lesser significance, attempts to reproduce local names have been made in English since the time of the Crusades . Livorno , for instance,

6059-794: The start of World War I , the Gurkha Regiments saw active service in Burma , Afghanistan , Northeast India and the North-West Frontier of India, Malta (the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78 ), Cyprus, Malaya, China (the Boxer Rebellion of 1900) and Tibet ( Younghusband's Expedition of 1905). After the Indian Rebellion of 1857 , the British authorities in India feared the inclusion of Hindu castes in

6142-686: The use of exonyms to avoid this kind of problem. For example, it is now common for Spanish speakers to refer to the Turkish capital as Ankara rather than use the Spanish exonym Angora . Another example, it is now common for Italian speakers to refer to some African states as Mauritius and Seychelles rather than use the Italian exonyms Maurizio and Seicelle . According to the United Nations Statistics Division : Time has, however, shown that initial ambitious attempts to rapidly decrease

6225-628: The world. They have also served in Sri Lanka conducting operations against the Tamil Tigers . The Gurkha Contingent (GC) of the Singapore Police Force was formed on 9 April 1949 from selected ex-British Army Gurkhas. It is an integral part of the police force and was raised to replace a Sikh unit that had existed prior to the Japanese occupation during the Second World War . The GC is

6308-483: The years, the endonym may have undergone phonetic changes, either in the original language or the borrowing language, thus changing an endonym into an exonym, as in the case of Paris , where the s was formerly pronounced in French. Another example is the endonym for the German city of Cologne , where the Latin original of Colonia has evolved into Köln in German, while the Italian and Spanish exonym Colonia or

6391-517: Was Leghorn because it was an Italian port essential to English merchants and, by the 18th century, to the British Navy ; not far away, Rapallo , a minor port on the same sea, never received an exonym. In earlier times, the name of the first tribe or village encountered became the exonym for the whole people beyond. Thus, the Romans used the tribal names Graecus (Greek) and Germanus (Germanic),

6474-575: Was born in Green Castle, Moville , Culdaff , Inishowen peninsula, in the north of County Donegal , Ireland . He came from an old family of Presbyterian landlords who came to Culdaff in the 17th century as tenants of the Marquis of Donegal. His father was Rev. Gardiner Young (1745-1822) who served as Rector in Moville and Coleraine . His mother was Catherine Richardson and Frederick Harvey, Bishop of Derry

6557-460: Was degrading to the Nepalese people and would be banned. However, as of 2023, Gurkha recruitment for foreign service continues. Four Gurkha regiments were transferred to the British Army on 1 January 1948: They formed the Brigade of Gurkhas and were initially stationed in Malaya . There were also a number of additional Gurkha units including the 69th and 70th Gurkha Field Squadrons, both included in

6640-597: Was his godfather. Young went to India at the age of 15, and joined the East India Company army as an ensign. He served initially under General Lake in central India, seeing action in the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-05). He then became an Aide-de-Camp to Sir Rollo Gillespie and served in Java. In 1814 he followed Gillespie into Nepal to wrest control from the gurkhas of the Kathmandu Valley. Gillespie

6723-508: Was increased to 33, and Gurkha units were placed at the disposal of the British high command by the Gurkha government for service on all fronts. Many Gurkha volunteers served in non-combatant roles, serving in units such as the Army Bearer Corps and the labour battalions. A large number also served in combat in France, Turkey, Palestine, and Iraq. They served on the battlefields of France in

6806-455: Was killed in the Battle of Nalapani , dying in the arms of Young. Command was then transferred to General David Ochterlony . During the Nepal war Young was briefly held prisoner by the gurkhas who supposedly appreciated his bravery. A campaign at Jaithak fort where Young was involved was successful and the gurkhas were defeated. He was able to convince the gurkhas to serve the English and he founded

6889-472: Was the substitution of Indian officers for British. By contrast, the four regiments selected for British service faced an uncertain future, initially in Malaya - a region where relatively few Gurkhas had previously served. The four regiments (or eight battalions) in British service were subsequently reduced to a single regiment of two battalions. The Indian units have been expanded beyond their pre-Independence establishment of 12 battalions. The principal aim of

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