Bolivia in other languages: Wuliwya, Buliwya, Sucre and departments

From the Republic of Bolívar to Wuliwya

Bolivia carries the name of Simón Bolívar. When Antonio José de Sucre declared the independence of Upper Peru on 6 August 1825, the new state was called the Republic of Bolívar; weeks later a deputy, Manuel Martín Cruz, argued that as Rome came from Romulus, Bolivia should come from Bolívar, and the shorter form was approved on 3 October 1825. The anthem keeps the memory in its last verse, which calls the country the land that owes its name to Bolívar.

The constitution of 2009 renamed the republic the Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, the Plurinational State, and gave the name in the indigenous languages as well. Quechua writes Buliwya, Aymara Wuliwya and Guarani Volívia: three spellings that start with three different letters, b, w and v, for the same name. Abroad the name rarely changes more than a letter. The Slavic languages write Bolivija or Боливия, the Sorbian languages Boliwiska, Samoan and Tongan Polivia, Nahuatl has Bolivatlān and Irish An Bholaiv.

Sucre and La Paz, Sukri and Chuqiyapu

Bolivia has two capitals. Sucre, the constitutional capital, holds the judiciary; the government and the legislature sit in La Paz. Both names are Spanish. Outside Bolivia Sucre changes very little: Sukre in Azerbaijani and Latvian, Sukro in Esperanto, Сукре in Russian, スクレ in Japanese. In the indigenous languages it is another word altogether, Sukri in Aymara and Chuqichaka in Quechua, the name of the department of Chuquisaca.

La Paz is Chuqiyapu in both Aymara and Quechua, and the department around it is Chuqiyapu jach’a suyu in Aymara. Translations of the Spanish name are rare. Latin has Civitas Pacis, the city of peace, while most other languages keep the Spanish sound: Ла-Пас in Russian, لاباز in Arabic, ラパス in Japanese. Hebrew writes לה־פס, and Katharevousa Greek has two forms, Λὰ Πάθ and Λὰ Πάς.

Flag of Bolivia

The national flag is a horizontal tricolour of red, yellow and green, used since 31 October 1851. Its proportions were left undefined until Supreme Decree 27630 of 2004 set them at 7.5 by 11 squares, a ratio of 15:22, and the colours at Pantone 485, Process Yellow and 356. The state flag adds the coat of arms in the centre; the civil form without it is shown on this page. The anthem, Bolivianos, el hado propicio, opens with the line that gives it its name.