This list of names for the Milky Way are in various languages. Some of them derive from myths, which can be found at Milky Way (mythology).

Before galaxies in the modern sense were discovered, in Europe "the Galaxy" was another name for the Milky Way.

List of names in various languages

Aboriginal Australian languages

The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia called the Milky Way wodliparri in the Kaurna language, meaning "house river".[9] The Gomeroi people between New South Wales and Queensland called the Milky Way Dhinawan, the giant Emu in the Sky that it stretches across the night sky. [10]

Common names

Birds' Path

The name "Birds' Path" is used in several Uralic and Turkic languages and in the Baltic languages. Northern peoples observed that migratory birds follow the course of the galaxy[11] while migrating at the Northern Hemisphere. The name "Birds' Path" (in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Bashkir and Kazakh) has some variations in other languages, e.g. "Way of the grey (wild) goose" in Chuvash, Mari and Tatar and "Way of the Crane" in Erzya and Moksha.

Milky Way

Many European languages have borrowed, directly or indirectly, the Greek name for the Milky Way, including English and Latin.

Road to Santiago

The Milky Way was traditionally used as a guide by pilgrims traveling to the holy site at Compostela, hence the use of "The Road to Santiago" as a name for the Milky Way.[4] Curiously, La Voje Ladee "The Milky Way" was also used to refer to the pilgrimage road.[12]

River Ganga of the Sky

The Sanskrit name "River Ganga of the Sky" (आकाशगंगा Ākāśagaṃgā) is used in many Indian languages following a Hindu belief .

Silver River

The Chinese name "Silver River" (銀河) is used throughout East Asia, including Korea and Vietnam. In Japan and Korea, "Silver River" 銀河 (Ginga) means galaxies in general.

River of Heaven

The Japanese name for the Milky Way is the "River of Heaven" (天の川), as well as an alternative name in Chinese (Chinese: 天河; pinyin: Tiān hé).

Straw Way

In West Asia, Central Asia and parts of the Balkans the name for the Milky Way is related to the word for straw. Today, Persians, Pakistanis, and Turks use it in addition to Arabs. It has been suggested that the term was spread by medieval Arabs who in turn borrowed it from Armenians.[13]

Walsingham Way

In England the Milky Way was called the Walsingham Way in reference to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham which is in Norfolk, England. It was understood to be either a guide to the pilgrims who flocked there, or a representation of the pilgrims themselves.[14]

Winter Street

Scandinavian peoples, such as Swedes, have called the galaxy Winter Street (Vintergatan) as the galaxy is most clearly visible during the winter at the northern hemisphere, especially at high latitudes where the glow of the Sun late at night can obscure it during the summer.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Toivanen, Sampsa; Sipilä, Heikki. "What is the Milky Way called in different languages?". Archived from the original on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
  2. ^ Sureth Dictionary. "Milky Way". www.assyrianlanguages.org. Association Assyrophile de France. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Cornish Dictionary". Cornish Language Partnership. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  4. ^ a b Macleod, Fiona (1911). Where the forest murmurs. New York: Duffield & Company. Chapter 21: Milky Way. Archived from the original on 17 February 2007.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi". Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  6. ^ "lactee". Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române (in Romanian). Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică "Iorgu Iordan", Editura Univers Enciclopedic. 1988.
  7. ^ HRODRIGUES (22 June 2008). "GANGA: GODDESS AND SACRED RIVER". Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  8. ^ Sureth dictionary. "Milky Way". www.assyrianlanguages.org. Association Assyrophile de France. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Reconciliation". Adelaide City Council. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ^ Mandow, Rami (3 May 2021). "Moonhack – Coding the Story of the Emu in the Sky". Space Australia. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  11. ^ ^ Sauer, EGF (July 1971). "Celestial Rotation and Stellar Orientation in Migratory Warblers". Science 30: 459–461.
  12. ^ "The Pilgrim's Way: El Camino de Santiago". Archived from the original on 17 December 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
  13. ^ Harutyunyan, Hayk (29 August 2003). "The Armenian name of the Milky Way". ArAS News. Armenian Astronomical Society (ArAS). 6. Archived from the original on 29 April 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  14. ^ Bogle, Joanna (16 September 2011). "A Pilgrimage to Walsingham, 'England's Nazareth'". National Catholic Register. EWTN. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
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