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 Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:35 pm
Does anyone know why the heck Nihon/Nippon is called "Japan" in English? It's something I've always wondered and never figured out. Germany's real name is Deutschland but we don't call it that either. But we call Myanmar by the right name even though it's hard to pronounce. (And, of course, it should rightfully be called Burma, since Myanmar is presently ruled by a militaristic dictatorship that nobody likes. sweatdrop )
So, what on earth is the point in changing country names???
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:42 pm
@_@ no idea, china also calls themselves by a different name. But then again they call us maygwa or something sweatdrop So I guess in some places its mutual mrgreen
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:59 am
oh yeah, that's right...I've been wondering the same thing.
Here in the Philippines, we even call Germany "Alemanya"...so...i don't really know where the heck they get all of these from. whee
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:14 am
ok there are2 resons. my reason, and the real reason:
NOTE: ALMOST ALL ASIAN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING INDIA AND KOREA, CALL THEMSELVES SOMETHING ELSE THEN WHAT YOU VE NAMED THEM.
AIKO'S REASON
Before modern times, english speakers sucked at learning languges.
REAL REASON
日本 in north China is read Jihpen. (zhi-pen)
The portugueses went through their, were told their is this great harmonious nation across the sea call Jih pen(kuo). and the portugueses said:
port.:""japen?"
china"no, jih pen"
port.:"juh pang?"
china"no, jih pen."
port.:"oh you mean Japan, yep that must be how its pronounced."
china:" stare "
My friend tells me the word for greeks and jews is different in her language too.which is hindi. i dont know how jews and greeks have to do with colorful india.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:58 am
Ah, that's cool to know, thanks! xd And I think your reason is right. People were too into the "MY CULTURE PWNS YOUR CULTURE!" attitude to work hard at learning other languages. >.<
Yeh, and Germany is "aleman-something" in French, Spanish... probably other romance languages too. o.O
America would have to be called something different in most countries, I think, because the full name is too long: United States of America... Heck, even we abbreviate it. Nobody says "United Arab Emirates" when they can just say "U.A.E."... etc.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:09 pm
Akira_Hoshino Yeh, and Germany is "aleman-something" in French, Spanish... probably other romance languages too. o.O In French, "Allemagne." 3nodding (All right, so that was off-topic, but... I felt I needed to post sometime. sweatdrop )
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:16 pm
Koreans call Korea (probably South) 'Han gook'. America is 'Mi gook.'
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:39 pm
Aiko_589 ok there are2 resons. my reason, and the real reason: NOTE: ALMOST ALL ASIAN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING INDIA AND KOREA, CALL THEMSELVES SOMETHING ELSE THEN WHAT YOU VE NAMED THEM. AIKO'S REASON Before modern times, english speakers sucked at learning languges. hey, be nice. "England" and "Igirisu イギリス" don't exactly sound very similar either. Besides, like you said, it was a portuguese misinterpretation, and it just kind of stuck in Europe.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:01 pm
I've always wondered this, too. Thanks for the answer, Aiko san!
But I think it's just for the ease of the native spakers most of the time. I mean, none of us fluently speaks all the languages on Earth, so we have to change the country name to something totally random to understand xd Well, I think that's how it works some of the time, anyways. lol
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:51 pm
Sachi_x I've always wondered this, too. Thanks for the answer, Aiko san! But I think it's just for the ease of the native spakers most of the time. I mean, none of us fluently speaks all the languages on Earth, so we have to change the country name to something totally random to understand xd Well, I think that's how it works some of the time, anyways. lol Yeah, but... sweatdrop Nippon, at least, isn't exactly hard to say. Nihon is, sort of. But go China-seeking Portuguese explorers! Way to confuse the world...
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:02 am
Akira_Hoshino Sachi_x I've always wondered this, too. Thanks for the answer, Aiko san! But I think it's just for the ease of the native spakers most of the time. I mean, none of us fluently speaks all the languages on Earth, so we have to change the country name to something totally random to understand xd Well, I think that's how it works some of the time, anyways. lol Yeah, but... sweatdrop Nippon, at least, isn't exactly hard to say. Nihon is, sort of. But go China-seeking Portuguese explorers! Way to confuse the world...
yeah, way to go Portuguese explorers!
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:25 pm
lol yeah I can totaly see the chinese be like scream
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:04 pm
that's really amusing. gotta love european arrogance.
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Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:41 pm
Wow@Aiko's post. I never knew that. ='O Interesting.
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:52 pm
Im not sure about this, but I think its a country-to-country thing. We call Japan 'Japan' and China 'China'...thats what it is to us in America. In Japan, they say 'Nippon' (Japan) and Chugoku (China). America is a hiragana word 'Amerika'...so thats pretty simple. In China, they call us something else, and they have different names for the countries.
Germany, which was mentioned in the first post, speaks a language surprisingly close to English...but they have their own proper names for other countries, and for their own country.
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