Why so many “-stan”? 为什么有那么多“斯坦”？

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Why so many “-stan”?

为什么有那么多“斯坦”？

The ancient Indo-Iranian peoples — descendants of Proto-Indo-Europeans who moved east and south from the Eurasian steppe – used it to mean “place” or “place of.” It’s this meaning that’s used for the names of the modern -stan countries, which got it through linguistic descent, or by adopting it.

古印度-伊朗人——即从欧亚大草原向东北方向迁移的原始印欧人的后裔——曾用“斯坦”来表示“地方”或者“什么的地方”。现代国家名字中的“斯坦”正是此意，这些国家的名字有的来自于语言学分支，或者是直接引用。

Examples:示例

Afghanistan is the “Land of the Afghans.” Afghan has historically referred to the Pashtun people, the country’s largest ethnic group.

阿富汗斯坦意为“阿富汗人的土地”。在历史上，阿富汗人指的是该国人口最多的民族普什图族人。

Kazakhstan is the “Land of the Kazakhs.” Kazakh is derived from a Turkic word meaning “independent.”

哈萨克斯坦意为“哈萨克族人的土地”。“哈萨克”起源于突厥语，其含义为“独立的”。

Pakistan means “Land of the Pure” in Urdu (from the Indo-Iranian pak, or “pure/clean”), but that’s a convenient coincidence. The country’s name was constructed as an acronym in the 1930s, referring to the area’s constituent cultures: Punjabi + Afghani + Kashmiri + Sindhi + Balochistan.

Tajikistan is the “Land of the Tajiks.” Tajik was used historically by Turks to refer to “non-Turks” that spoke Iranian-related languages.

巴基斯坦在乌尔都语中意为“纯洁之地”（源自使用印度-伊朗语系的巴基斯坦人，可解释为“纯洁或清洁”），然而这个表述仅仅是巧合而已。巴基斯坦国名在20世纪30年代期间确立，是其国内文化成分的名字首字母缩写：旁遮普+阿富汗+克什米尔+信德+俾路支斯坦（另外，为辅助发音又加入了字母“i”）

生词表:

descent 英[dɪ'sent] n. 下降；血统；袭击vt. 除去…的气味；使…失去香味