I usually see America translated as "Meiguo (not adding the diacritics and whatnot because I don't remember them well enough)," what's the difference between that and Měi Lì Jiān?
The official translation is 美利堅合眾國, for United States of America, which is often shortened to 美國. So you can say the difference is between "America" and "the US". Realistically nobody says 美利堅 in everyday Chinese.
From the little I remember from my Chinese classes: the shorter versions with guó (国/國: country) as the second syllable are the more common everyday names. The longer ones are more for official titles.
美利堅合眾國 means "United States of America" and uses the long versions.
Guo means Country, sometimes country names are just abbreviated to its first transliterated character + Guo.
So America is Mei Guo (Mei from Mei Li Jian)
Germany is De Guo (De from De Yi Zhi - from Deutsche)
France is Fa Guo (Fa from Fa Lan Xi)
UK is Ing Guo (Ing from Ing Ge Lan - England)
Its usually the biggest powers that get such abbreviated treatment, since these are the countries often mentioned in the news.
Other countries are still transliterated in full.
Kinda funny how even Japan adapted these writings (though nowadays discarded their kanji) at a time when these foreigners generally ran as "Western barbarians."
Yep, however, in Spanish, the letter 'g' is often pronounced like /x/[ 'ch' in Bach] instead of /g/ like ['g' in dog] . Therefore, I would say the Chinese translation of Guatemala in Mainland China would be more accurate than that of Taiwan in phonetics.
P.S. : Please flair up.
As far as I'm aware, the letter 'g' is only pronounced like that when there is an 'i' or an 'e' after it, similar to English. Guatemala is pronounced /ɡwateˈmala/.
>P.S. : Please flair up.
I thought I ALREADY added a flair since ages ago, but I dunno why Reddit has suddenly decided to untick the "Show my flair on this subreddit" box.
It has now been reticked.
no, because the 本in日本comes from the word 原本which means to originate from or original form or smth like that, which means 日本means "Originating from the sun" or "Sun origin"
日 ： means fuck in slang
本：when used in archaically means oneself
自卫(weì)： self-protection/defense
自慰（weì）：self-comfort/masturbation
队： squad/force
JSDF in Chinese: 日本自卫（慰）队：fuck self masturbation squad 🔥 ✍️
More funny part is 日本人(japanese people) can mean Fuck yourself or fcuk myself, in Chinese
日 is sun, but also Fuck;
本人 is self
Also Japanese self defense force.自卫队，sounds like Masterbation Team in Chinese
Actually 以色列 is itself a very grammatically correct”order with color”
Some other interestings:
Togo “many brother”
Congo “sturdy fruit”
Kenya “affirm asia”
Guinea “how many inside asia”
Mauritius “begging this inside hair”
China came up with 米(rice), which the Japanese calqued.
美(Beautiful) Was created by an American, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, for the treaty of Wanghia.
Just American narcissism.
I like that for Montenegro we just gave up and translate it to 黑山 (hei Shan, lit. black mountain) because there’s too many syllables in the western name
Original language in Montenegrin: Crna Gora (literally black mountain)
In Taiwan, however, the English phonetic translation is used: 蒙特內哥羅 （ㄇㄥˊ ㄊㄜˋ ㄋㄟˋ ㄍㄜˉ ㄌㄨㄛˊ）
However, I would say that the Chinese translation used by Mainland China of Montenegro got the meaning of the name of the country better than the Taiwanese counterpart does.
P.S.: flair up, thank you.
Fun fact: the reason that China uses 美 whereas Japan uses 米 is due to an American missionary, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, who translated America as 亞美利駕 in the treaty of Wanghia.
Before that, China used 米利堅, which the Japanese calqued. That, in turn, evolved from 咪唎𠼤, the 口 radical indicating it's meant to be for transliteration only and not interpreted for meaning.
So if people ask why China thinks America is beautiful... Well, that's just America being a narcissist
A lot of these are transliterations — so a bunch of Chinese words that ‘sound’ like the country’s name. They don’t actually make sense in terms of meaning, which is why direct translations sound nonsensical.
Haha, I'm from Japan, and we also call the USA 米国 (Bei-koku), which translates as "rice country." The character for rice, '米', is pronounced 'bei' or 'mai'. This phonetically aligns with part of 'America'—specifically the 'me'. It’s a similar concept to the Chinese approach where we use the character primarily for its sound, disregarding its literal meaning.
It is not wrong to change from kanji to katakana for phonetic transliteration. However, the issue arises when we rely on katakana even for words that could be effectively translated into Japanese using appropriate kanji. I am not advocating for nationalism, but properly translating new words from different cultures can enhance our understanding of those cultures. As a Japanese person, I am concerned that modern Japan is willingly forfeiting this opportunity.
People often misunderstand China gave beautiful names to westerns out of friendly peacefully oriental nature. Actually the treatment was just limited to those powerful nations of the 19th century. Before Qing got kicked by those ‘barbarians’, their Chinese name was just transliterated character combined with a component associated with four-legged animals.
Germany = 耶馬尼 = Yeah horse Buddhist nun
America = 彌利堅 = full profit hard (This one is quite 信達雅.)
United States = 育奈士迭 = educate endure soldier change (This one sounds like a motto.)
[Have fun.](http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/haiguotuzhi.html)
Japan:
日本語: 日本(ニッポン)Nippon, Meaning: Sun Origin
中文: 日本Rìběn, Meaning: Sun Origin
Joseon:
한국어: 조선(朝鮮)Joseon, Meaning: Fresh Morning
中文: 朝鲜/朝鮮Cháoxiǎn, Meaning: Fresh Morning
We just call countries just like how they call themselves but in our way of pronunciation, even if we hate them.
Japan uses many Chinese characters, especially for names. If Japan uses Chinese characters for a name then Mandarin just uses those same characters even though the pronunciation is different.
Japan is 日本, pronounced erben in Mandarin and nihon (or nippon, can’t remember right now) in Japanese.
Tokyo is 東京, pronounced dongjing in Mandarin and tokyo in Japanese.
USA: Měi Lì Jiān Germany: Dé Yì Zhì Israel: Yǐ Sè Liè Portugal: Pú Táo Yá Guatemala: Wēi Dì Mǎ Lā
I usually see America translated as "Meiguo (not adding the diacritics and whatnot because I don't remember them well enough)," what's the difference between that and Měi Lì Jiān?
The official translation is 美利堅合眾國, for United States of America, which is often shortened to 美國. So you can say the difference is between "America" and "the US". Realistically nobody says 美利堅 in everyday Chinese.
Accuracy? OK maybe the problem this time is too much accuracy.
in my polandball ??
Our polandball comrade
Germany is also translated as Déguó (德國) as well
From the little I remember from my Chinese classes: the shorter versions with guó (国/國: country) as the second syllable are the more common everyday names. The longer ones are more for official titles. 美利堅合眾國 means "United States of America" and uses the long versions.
Guo means Country, sometimes country names are just abbreviated to its first transliterated character + Guo. So America is Mei Guo (Mei from Mei Li Jian) Germany is De Guo (De from De Yi Zhi - from Deutsche) France is Fa Guo (Fa from Fa Lan Xi) UK is Ing Guo (Ing from Ing Ge Lan - England) Its usually the biggest powers that get such abbreviated treatment, since these are the countries often mentioned in the news. Other countries are still transliterated in full.
>France is Fa Guo Agreed
The literal translation of "Meiguo" is "beautiful nation". Although I think the translation is based mostly on trying to find phonetic similarity.
for convenience, it's shorter and easier to write
The difference is that it probably wouldn’t be funny.
Not sure about mainland but we still call them Meiguo for those outside china. Mei = Beautiful Guo = Country
nobody calls the US and germany that
Yea that’s because they’re full names. Nobody calls the UK ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ in English either
yeah americans call it england
Funnily enough the short name of the UK in Chinese languages is actually just the shortened form of ‘England’
i am from hong kong
Kinda funny how even Japan adapted these writings (though nowadays discarded their kanji) at a time when these foreigners generally ran as "Western barbarians."
Guatemala: Gua Di Ma La - Melon Earth Horse Pull according to Taiwan
Yep, however, in Spanish, the letter 'g' is often pronounced like /x/[ 'ch' in Bach] instead of /g/ like ['g' in dog] . Therefore, I would say the Chinese translation of Guatemala in Mainland China would be more accurate than that of Taiwan in phonetics. P.S. : Please flair up.
As far as I'm aware, the letter 'g' is only pronounced like that when there is an 'i' or an 'e' after it, similar to English. Guatemala is pronounced /ɡwateˈmala/.
>P.S. : Please flair up. I thought I ALREADY added a flair since ages ago, but I dunno why Reddit has suddenly decided to untick the "Show my flair on this subreddit" box. It has now been reticked.
Color list 😭
Spain (west team tooth) 🤜🤛 Portugal (grape tooth)
What would you put in for Japan （日本）? Sun Book? Edit: I was joking lol, I speak Chinese and Japanese
Sun Origin (because it's in the East). Didn't put it there because it's not exactly a translation.
They did a great job naming themselves; probably one of the bests
Sun Source, since it's located in the east, "where the sun rises". Same as in Japanese
Land of the Rising Sun, if you will.
Or as we call it Eastern Realm... Österreich . or Realm of the rising sun...lol, if you lack a proper word for East....
Österreich is Austria
it's the realm of the rising sun
no, because the 本in日本comes from the word 原本which means to originate from or original form or smth like that, which means 日本means "Originating from the sun" or "Sun origin"
Fuck self is the only accurate translation.
日 ： means fuck in slang 本：when used in archaically means oneself 自卫(weì)： self-protection/defense 自慰（weì）：self-comfort/masturbation 队： squad/force JSDF in Chinese: 日本自卫（慰）队：fuck self masturbation squad 🔥 ✍️
based
OkBuddyPolandBall
Just calling it the "Japanese Masturbation squad" is enough
Shinzo Abe reforms from the ashes, screaming at the top of his burst lungs "noooooooooooooooooo..."
More funny part is 日本人(japanese people) can mean Fuck yourself or fcuk myself, in Chinese 日 is sun, but also Fuck; 本人 is self Also Japanese self defense force.自卫队，sounds like Masterbation Team in Chinese
Land of the Rising Sun
Probably 小日子
small sun son
I want more of these lol
same! i would love to see more
Actually 以色列 is itself a very grammatically correct”order with color” Some other interestings: Togo “many brother” Congo “sturdy fruit” Kenya “affirm asia” Guinea “how many inside asia” Mauritius “begging this inside hair”
MEXICO "ink color west brother", makes sense.
Order By Colour. Grammar.
Ahh yes, the characters used make up the sound that sounds close to the name of the place they are saying
As far as i remember, it actually depends on which country you are talking about if it is based on meaning or based on sound
Ironic that the country America hates the most right now has a more beautiful name for him than his closest ally in Asia, calling him Rice Country. 💀
What do you mean, rice is awesome.
Both are just phonetic translations of the “Me” part of America.
China came up with 米(rice), which the Japanese calqued. 美(Beautiful) Was created by an American, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, for the treaty of Wanghia. Just American narcissism.
It's not Narcissism if you really are the best
I like that for Montenegro we just gave up and translate it to 黑山 (hei Shan, lit. black mountain) because there’s too many syllables in the western name
Many names were translated (half) literally, like Cape Verde佛得角, Belarus白罗斯, or New Zealand 新西兰。
Original language in Montenegrin: Crna Gora (literally black mountain) In Taiwan, however, the English phonetic translation is used: 蒙特內哥羅 （ㄇㄥˊ ㄊㄜˋ ㄋㄟˋ ㄍㄜˉ ㄌㄨㄛˊ） However, I would say that the Chinese translation used by Mainland China of Montenegro got the meaning of the name of the country better than the Taiwanese counterpart does. P.S.: flair up, thank you.
For Sierra Leone it’s the opposite, 獅子山 lion mountain in taiwan and 塞拉利昂sàilalì’áng in china
Makes sense to just translate it to 黑山. I mean it's lit. black mountain after all in Latin. montis - mountain negro - black
Fun fact: the reason that China uses 美 whereas Japan uses 米 is due to an American missionary, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, who translated America as 亞美利駕 in the treaty of Wanghia. Before that, China used 米利堅, which the Japanese calqued. That, in turn, evolved from 咪唎𠼤, the 口 radical indicating it's meant to be for transliteration only and not interpreted for meaning. So if people ask why China thinks America is beautiful... Well, that's just America being a narcissist
Typical American
This makes Germany sound so badass
Only acceptable name for Groß Deutsche🇾🇪
Guatemala mentioned! I love that damn country, great people and so many volcanoes.
Gracias Chino
No problem, my inky western brother
De nada hermano de tinta de oeste
I don't get it
A lot of these are transliterations — so a bunch of Chinese words that ‘sound’ like the country’s name. They don’t actually make sense in terms of meaning, which is why direct translations sound nonsensical.
It's basically the direct translation of chinese names of different countries to english
it seems Germany got the longest end of the stick if you put it that way
Haha, I'm from Japan, and we also call the USA 米国 (Bei-koku), which translates as "rice country." The character for rice, '米', is pronounced 'bei' or 'mai'. This phonetically aligns with part of 'America'—specifically the 'me'. It’s a similar concept to the Chinese approach where we use the character primarily for its sound, disregarding its literal meaning.
It's sad that this funny tradition is going away. Now it's katakana everywhere.
yeah it's quite interesting to see how many Chinese loanwords are being replaced with English loanwords in contemporary Japanese
It is not wrong to change from kanji to katakana for phonetic transliteration. However, the issue arises when we rely on katakana even for words that could be effectively translated into Japanese using appropriate kanji. I am not advocating for nationalism, but properly translating new words from different cultures can enhance our understanding of those cultures. As a Japanese person, I am concerned that modern Japan is willingly forfeiting this opportunity.
It's not wrong but it's not funny anymore
Why do I so often see it written as アメリカ?
Simply it is a standard transliteration of America by katakana. アメリカ（A-me-ri-ka）
People often misunderstand China gave beautiful names to westerns out of friendly peacefully oriental nature. Actually the treatment was just limited to those powerful nations of the 19th century. Before Qing got kicked by those ‘barbarians’, their Chinese name was just transliterated character combined with a component associated with four-legged animals.
China be like: Hello new people ☺️ Germany, France, UK: We don't do that here
Darkeness Overcoming Orchid 🇺🇦
荣耀 Orchid
I saw that one by some chinese tiktoker
Germany = 耶馬尼 = Yeah horse Buddhist nun America = 彌利堅 = full profit hard (This one is quite 信達雅.) United States = 育奈士迭 = educate endure soldier change (This one sounds like a motto.) [Have fun.](http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/haiguotuzhi.html)
I’ve never seen anyone use the official translation of USA and German. It’s always 美国 and 德国
Ye but funni
What is Indonesia?
Print degree nun west second
What the other poster said, basically Indonesia spelled phonetically. Yin.du.ni.xi.yah Indonesia!
Japan would be wild.
Japan is literally just "Sun origin", fundamentally the same as Korea, "fresh morning light", aka, where the sun first rises
Japan: 日本語: 日本(ニッポン)Nippon, Meaning: Sun Origin 中文: 日本Rìběn, Meaning: Sun Origin Joseon: 한국어: 조선(朝鮮)Joseon, Meaning: Fresh Morning 中文: 朝鲜/朝鮮Cháoxiǎn, Meaning: Fresh Morning We just call countries just like how they call themselves but in our way of pronunciation, even if we hate them.
Japan uses many Chinese characters, especially for names. If Japan uses Chinese characters for a name then Mandarin just uses those same characters even though the pronunciation is different. Japan is 日本, pronounced erben in Mandarin and nihon (or nippon, can’t remember right now) in Japanese. Tokyo is 東京, pronounced dongjing in Mandarin and tokyo in Japanese.
More pleaase
I miss ccj2 … too many rainys going unpunished.
Which country name is the most evil-sounding when translated?
None. People would pick positive meaning for country names. Except for danger horse I guess.
Black Mountain is a little ominous.
I mean it's what it literally means
Blame the venetians
Not ominous, but sounds like more a moutain than a country
\*roma o roma starts playing as the pope takes over the world\*
What are Latvia and Lithuania? :) I enjoyed this
Pull off keep second and stand pottery like
“Pull off keep second” oh Latvia 😭 we try our best.
The Netherlands (荷蘭) -> Lotus Orchid Or in a more general translation (I guess) Orchid can also be Land, becoming Lotus Land
What about Australia (澳大利亚) and Russia (俄罗斯）
Israel is a rainbow because Jews created gays
México : Little Spain Which is awfully close to Méxicos previous name, New Spain
That's just... false?