country names

[drydem]

One thing I find fascinating is how English has developed names for different foreign countries. They almost never match up with what the other countries call themselves and it's interesting because the roots of the misnaming all have interesting political significance.
Examples

Japan-the name Japan comes from the Mandarin Chinese, who pronounce the kanji that make up the name of the island in a way similar to Japan. This is because we met the Chinese first and for some reason decided they could name Japan better than the Nihonjin.
Korea-the name Korea comes from the French, the first European people to journey to the peninsula. When they got there, the ruling dynasty was the Koryo dynasty so the called it Corea. What we know as South Korea knows itself as Han'guk or taehan-min'guk. North Korea, and my memory is even spottier on this, is Choson or choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk. The idea that they have the same name for their country with just a north or a south is a purely western invention.
Germany-It's Deutschland people! I don't know where "Germany" comes from, but it's our word. It's bizzare.
These are just a few odd examples.

Comments

[fallen-scholar.livejournal.com]

"with just a north or a south is a purely western invention"

- So that war thing wasn't too meaningful then?

[drydem.livejournal.com]

No, quite meaningful, but it would be like calling the United States, West England, and Great Britain East England.

[butterfluff.livejournal.com]

Germany comes from Latin.

more

[solestria.livejournal.com]

i guess i can see how stupid americans wouldn't be able to pronounce "oesterriech", and austria isn't too far off, but i'm not sure where we got it. donau morphed into danube somewhere along the way. . . i know there are more, but it's been a while since i was in europe. prague in czech is something like "prahu" (i'm not sure if that's quite it, but it's something like that).

Re: more

[butterfluff.livejournal.com]

Don't blame the Americans when you can blame the English first. I doubt most Americans knew where Austria was when the English started calling it that. (We will leave to further study how many Americans currently know where it is.)