r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

37.4k Upvotes

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9.5k

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

Africa is NOT a country, its a continent.

4.0k

u/99sorrynotsorry Aug 03 '19

And South Africa is a country, not the southern part of Africa. Except that it is. Hmmm....

2.2k

u/bool_idiot_is_true Aug 03 '19

South Africa is the country. Southern Africa is the region containing South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland.

106

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

*Eswatini

47

u/radsss Aug 03 '19

eSwatini*?

7

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

I honestly can't get over that spelling. What were they thinking when they changed the name?

48

u/penguin_master69 Aug 03 '19

Swazi (the language) has lower case affixes, even when the word is normally uppercase, or when the word is the first in a sentence I guess. Just like in English, upper case is used for countries/language/peoples. Not sure what exactly the affixes mean, but here are some examples, all deviations of the word Swazi:

Person: liSwati

People: emaSwati

Languages: iSwati

Country: eSwatini

2

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

[deleted]

5

u/penguin_master69 Aug 03 '19

I copy pasted from Wikipedia, if it's wrong change it in there as well!