My 2nd child & I watched a random video in which some guy tried the figure out which country name was the most unique. He started with some criteria that sounded OK to use, but then diverted.
This has angered child 2, and so we will now write down all UN members names in their original language(s) and apply proper criteria.
We may not sleep.
First criterium will be: the name contains common words ("The", "United", "El"), in the language it is in.
~~Second criterium: the name cannot contain any words that are also used in another name ("Sudan" + "South Sudan").~~ EDIT: I misunderstood, this is not criterium 2.
We'll apply these as soon as BK2 has finished writing all names down.
I suspect there will be some looking up of words in a bunch of languages...
Criterium 2: compound words.
Example: "...land" eliminates "Deutschland", because "Land" in German is a word, like "land" in English.
We discovered a mistake! "Tschad" should have been eliminated in round 1.
Fixed.
We both underestimated the effort we had to put in for round 2, lots of "Etymology" chapters on Wikipedia had to be read, and sometimes we had to go further.
We're now shattered, and we will stop here.
Tomorrow, criteria 3: duplicates. Any name or part of name that exists more than once will be eliminated ("Sudan" & "South Sudan" for example)
Sleep tight, and stay tuned for our heroic quest to find the country with the most unique name, done right[tm].
Day 2 of our heroic effort.
We're more awake now, and BK2 immediately found mistakes we made late yesterday:
- Eliminated Uruguay, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Australia, because their names contain words.
Criterium 3 - similar names
We threw out 2:
- Niger & Nigeria
Now to think about what additional criteria to use.
BK2 is toying with "sound the same in their respective language", I'm not convinced.
First, though, we're watching TADC episode 8, so if you want us to consider a criterium, let us know!
@bollino313 we're back!
"Eliminate everything that is named after a person or a people. Great suggestion, whoever that was!"
Another miss: Brasil!
Corrected.
OK. ~~Criterium 5, the name refers to some geographical feature.~~
Correction: after some debate, criterium 5 is: was it named by foreign people (e.g. colonists)?
We're starting to suspect that those that have the least or most uncertain etymology will win.
Round 5 killed 10, so on to
Criterium 6, the name refers to some geographic feature.
We think we ran out of etymology now. Most of the country names left are either a total mystery or have a bunch of unconfirmed theories.
On to formal approaches.
Criterium 7, ends on a vocal.
7 kills everything but "Nepal".
Were done, and the result is satisfying given Nepal also has a very unique flag!
jexner 🏳️🌈
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