Japanese placenames

lacking a more appropriate forum for this, i want to know the japanese names for other countries. i know japan=nihon but what do they call france, ireland, germany and england? :dunce:

EDIT: of course its now that i find the japanese language section... d`oh.

Guangxi said:

lacking a more appropriate forum for this, i want to know the japanese names for other countries. i know japan=nihon but what do they call france, ireland, germany and england?

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I made a short list here of some countries. The thing I find most interesting about the names is where the names are derived from.. France for example is just Furansu, but Germany is Doitsu, which is derived from the Dutch word for Germany: "Duitsland". But then again, Holland, which is called "Nederland" in Dutch, is Olanda in Japanese, which is actually Portugese!!

I also like the Kanji they use to write the foreign countries.

France Furansu フランス 仏蘭西
Germany Doitsu ドイツ 独逸
England Igirisu イギリス 英吉利
Holland Olanda オランダ 阿蘭陀
Spain Supein スペイン 西班牙
Portugal Porutogaru ポルトガル 葡萄牙
etc.

EDIT: Oh by the way, does anyone know the difference between Nihon and Nippon? I know they're the same word, but which pronunciation is used when? Or is it a local dialect thing?

Not a problem. Moved for you.

When I did my Japanese my sensei gave some Japanese names for other countries. From what I remember
France - Furansu
UK- Igirisu
USA - Amerika
China - Chugoku? (I think)
Gemany - Doitsu
Scotland - Sukkotorando
If I remember correctly most countries names are phonetic renditions of the countries name. For the people just add - jin on the end ie: Nihon-jin, Furansu-jin; and -go for the language. There are exceptions, English (language) is Eigo for example.

leonmarino said:

I made a short list here of some countries. The thing I find most interesting about the names is where the names are derived from.. France for example is just Furansu, but Germany is Doitu, which is derived from the Dutch word for Germany: "Duitsland". But then again, Holland, which is called "Nederland" in Dutch, is Olanda in Japanese, which is actually Portugese!!
I also like the Kanji they use to write the foreign countries.
France Furansu ﾆ稚ﾆ停?ｰﾆ停?愴湛ﾂ 窶｢ﾂｧ窶披?督青ｼ
Germany Doituﾂ ﾆ檀ﾆ辰ﾆ団ﾂ 窶愿??ｭ
Englandﾂ Igirisu ﾆ辰ﾆ樽ﾆ椎?ﾆ湛ﾂ 窶ｰp窶ｹg窶藩
Hollandﾂ Olanda ﾆ棚ﾆ停?ｰﾆ停?愴胆ﾂ ﾋ?｢窶披?凪?佚
Spain Supeinﾂ ﾆ湛ﾆ馳ﾆ辰ﾆ停?慊 ﾂ青ｼ窶敕??ｰﾃ･
Portugalﾂ Porutogaru ﾆ竹ﾆ停?ｹﾆ暖ﾆ狸ﾆ停?ｹﾂ 窶｢窶吮?慊ｸ窶ｰﾃ･
etc.
EDIT: Oh by the way, does anyone know the difference between Nihon and Nippon? I know they're the same word, but which pronunciation is used when? Or is it a local dialect thing?

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thanks. i think nippon is a european version of nihon.
thanx for moving the thread mycernius
p.s. ye have excellent smilies here

leonmarino said:

France for example is just Furansu, but Germany is Doitu, which is derived from the Dutch word for Germany: "Duitsland". But then again, Holland, which is called "Nederland" in Dutch, is Olanda in Japanese, which is actually Portugese!!

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I think they use the Portuguese for The Netherlands because that is the main European country they had contact with before Foreigners were kicked out. The same reason the UK is called Igirisu. It is derived from the Portuguese for English, Inglês

Mycernius said:

I think they use the Portuguese for The Netherlands because that is the main European country they had contact with before Foreigners were kicked out. The same reason the UK is called Igirisu. It is derived from the Portuguese for English, Inglês

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Yes I know, but isn't it funny that they use the Portuguese word for Holland, while Holland was the one country that was allowed to have contact with Japan when all the others were kicked out?

I just realizes that the US for example, called アメリカ - America, can be written as 亜米利加, but it's often referred to as 米国 - Beikoku. Never quite understood why someone would refer to the US as Riceland, but now I see that 米 in 亜米利加 is chosen because of its pronunciation マイ - mai.

The same goes for 英吉利 - Igirisu, England. It is often referred to as 英国 - Eikoku. 英 can mean "superior" (as in the word 英才), and it's also in the word 英雄 - eiyuu, which means "hero", so I always thought the Kanji was chosen because of the English history being filled with stories of knights and kings and whatever.. But apparently it's just the pronunciation エイ that came close to e-sound in Igirisu..

Furthermore!! Holland can be written as either 阿蘭陀 or 和蘭! Now I haven't quite found out yet what the different usages are, so I hope someone can enlighten us about this..

Yeah, in newspapers, just the character 米 is understood as a reference to America. Back when Japan first opened up it used kanji to transliterate the names for most countries around the world. These days, most country names are put in katakana, with only a few retaining kanji (America, England, China, Korea...) As with most things, it depends on the context, and in mediums like newspapers, the more space you can save the better.

Nowadays the kanji names of countries aside from China and Korea aren't used a lot, as nice gaijin said, but doinkies has still seen abbreviations of them in newspapers and webpages, not just 米 but also 英, 仏、独、蘭、豪、etc. A lot of the kanji names of countries are used in China too, though the word for America in Chinese is 美国 rather than 米国 (and 米国 isn't used quite as often as アメリカ is, judging from Google results).

leonmarino said:

Oh by the way, does anyone know the difference between Nihon and Nippon? I know they're the same word, but which pronunciation is used when? Or is it a local dialect thing?

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I'm sure someone knows a more comprehensive answer, but as far as I know... They are just two ways of pronouncing the same characters. Nippon is a more formal sounding name. I think ANA is All Nippon Airways. I'd imagine national sports teams are referred to as nippon as well. Nihon on the other hand sounds less harsh so is used more commonly.

MrWabu said:

I'm sure someone knows a more comprehensive answer, but as far as I know... They are just two ways of pronouncing the same characters. Nippon is a more formal sounding name. I think ANA is All Nippon Airways. I'd imagine national sports teams are referred to as nippon as well. Nihon on the other hand sounds less harsh so is used more commonly.

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Both Nippon and Nihon are official pronunciation and correct.
And you are right in saying "Nippon" is more formal sounding name, as it is used on the postal stamps and bank notes.

General tendency is (but there are lot of exceptions too) when 日本 is used by itself, pronunciation is Nippon while it is combined with other kanji, it is pronounced Nihon.

e.g.
西日本 Nishinihon
日本海 Nihonkai *Japan Sea
日本人 Nihonjin
日本語 Nihongo
日本茶 Nihoncha
日本航空 Nihonkoukuu *Japan Airline
日本橋 Nihonbashi (in Tokyo) *Name of place
日本放送協会 Nihonhousoukyoukai *NHK

More examples under にほん
Wikipedia:索引 にほ - Wikipedia

exception
日本銀行 Nipponginkou *the Bank of Japan
日本橋 Nipponbashi (in Osaka) *Name of place
ニッポン放送 Nipponhousou *Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc.
More examples under につほん
Wikipedia:索引 につ - Wikipedia

*proper noun

Pretty confusing, even for Japanese natives!