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"Istan" redirects here. For the municipality in Andalusia (Spain), see Istán.

The suffix -stān (spelled ـستان in the Perso-Arabic script) is Persian for "place of", a cognate to Pashto -tun, and derived from the Indo-Aryan equivalent, -sthāna (IPA: [st̪ʰaːna] (स्थान in the Devanāgarī script), a cognate Sanskrit suffix with a similar meaning. In Indo-Aryan languages, sthāna means "place", and is cognate to the Latin terms, state and status (meaning "to stand"). Those countries, mostly Central Asian, whose names end in -stan are informally called the Stans.

The suffix also appears in the names of many regions, especially in Central and South Asia, areas where ancient Indo-Iranian peoples were established; in Iranian, however, it is also used more generally, as in Persian rigestan (ريگستان) 'place of sand, desert' and golestan (گلستان) 'place of roses, rose garden', Hindi/Sanskrit devasthan (place of devas, "temple"), etc. Both suffixes are of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin, the Proto-Indo-European root being *stā- 'stand,' which is also the source of English stand, Latin stāre, and Greek histamai (ίσταμαι), all meaning 'stand,' as well as many other words, for instance the Russian word стан (stan) meaning 'settlement' or 'semi-permanent camp' (used in reference to semi-nomadic settlements encountered in certain areas of Central Asia) or in other Slavic languages such as Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian where stan means 'apartment' in its modern usage, while its original meaning is 'habitat' . Also in Germanic languages the suffix has survived, for example in the words Stadt (German), stad (Dutch/Scandinavian) and stêd (West Frisian), all meaning 'city'. The English suffix "-stead" is also yet another variant.

The suffix -stan occurs in the following names, mostly geographical or pseudo-geographical:

Continent

South Asia

Countries

Autonyms

Regions

Proposed names

Other proposed names include Dalitstan, Mughalstan, and other similar names that originated on the Dalitstan website.

Fictional

Satirical

  • Absurdistan — sometimes used to satirically describe a country where everything goes wrong.
  • Boratistan — name used by Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko to describe an image of Kazakhstan created by Sacha Baron Cohen's character, Borat.
  • Canuckistan, Soviet Canuckistan — derogatory nickname for Canada.
  • Donundestan, capital Rillirillibad - Fictional country in the Middle East in A Prairie Home Companion [1]
  • Ethniclashistan — sometimes used satirically to describe countries in which multiple ethnic groups were thrown together, who then began fighting each other, e.g. Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union. It was featured in the satirical The Onion newspaper in June, 2001 as being placed in the West Bank in the article Northern Irish, Serbs, Hutus Granted Homeland In West Bank (here spelled Ethniklashistan)
  • Hollandistan - sometimes used to describe the rise of Islam in the Netherlands it is a combination of Holland and -istan
  • Hotdogestan - Fictional country in the Middle East in A Prairie Home Companion [2]
  • Incumbistan - introduced by columnist Mark Steyn to refer to the efforts of politicians of all parties to unite to enact rules seen as assuring their continued reelection [3].
  • Londonistan — the British capital of London was given this sobriquet by French counter-terrorism agents.
  • Londonistan (book) A book that sounds a warning about how the culture of the United Kingdom is being changed by a high concentration of immigrants.
  • Nukhavastan — fictional country created by The Onion that has nuclear weapons.
  • Pourrikistan - (can be translated by Crapistan) Fictional country seen on the french desencyclopedie website concerning any country were the living conditions for expatriates are considered as very bad. It can be applied on many middle east countries, as well as mid Asian countries.
  • Trashcanistan - a joking way of referring to Afghanistan often used by US military personnel.
  • The three Jetlag parody travel guides contain faux ads for guides to other countries, each with a -stan reference. Molvanîa contains an ad for "Surviving Moustaschistan" (mentioning also "Carpetstan"), Phaic Tăn contains an ad for "Sherpastan", and San Sombrèro contains an ad for "Tyranistan".
  • Various -stans appearing on different versions of the Jesusland map

Other

Citations

  1. ^ Davidson, Roderic H. (1960). "Where is the Middle East?". Foreign Affairs. 38: p. 665–675. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  2. ^ http://www.anmik.ru/kislovodsk/kislodsk-info/
  3. ^ http://www.kumukia.ru/modules.php?name=Pages&pa=showpage&pid=9234
  4. ^ http://www.kumukia.ru/modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=1603
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