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Part of it is that language diverged, but it's also because if you're in country X talking about country Y and you have a long enough history you'll have a word

Part of it is that language diverged, but it's also because if you're in country X talking about country Y and you have a long enough history you'll have a word in language X for country Y. I recall a story but I'm not sure of its authenticity, it described western traders asking portuguese translators to give them the pronunciation of 日本 (Nihon/Nippon the native word for Japan). The PT translators interpreted the characters through Mandarin and come out with "Jipangu" which would be the root etymology for our english term "Japan".

9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
Not Mandarin, but some unspecified southern dialect (probably Fujianese/Hokkien, where it's Jitpun). If Mandarin had been involved, we'd call Japan something like Arben (Riben) in English.
yorwba 7y ago
The reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation for 日本 is /ȵiɪt̚ puən/. In some languages, such as Japanese, the ȵ became an n. In others, such as Mandarin, it denasalized to a fricative like ʐ̩ instead. The etymology for English "Japan" /dʒəˈpæn/ is apparently Portuguese "Japão" /ʒɐ.ˈpɐ̃w̃/ via Malay "Jepun" /d͡ʒəpon/, via Min Nan 日本 (Ji̍t-pún) /ʑit̚⁴⁻³² pun⁴¹/ which itself is probably a loan (using Min readings of the characters), since the Min languages split off the Chinese branch before 日本 came to be used for Japan. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC#Pronunciation https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC#Pronunciat...