4 ms·

Anyone know if the map of "literal Chinese translations for country names" is accurate? Seems like there's some possible insight into Chinese culture if what it

Anyone know if the map of "literal Chinese translations for country names" is accurate? Seems like there's some possible insight into Chinese culture if what it portrays is accurate. I wonder how much business China does with Italy :D

doyoulikeworms 13y ago
I neither speak nor write nor read Chinese, but someone explained to me that those names are simply rough phonetic approximations. They decided to go with words that weren't offensive, but sound like the country's names, because that's the polite thing to do. I'd love for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to chime in, though!
- aenario 13y ago
  Here is a helpful table http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/europe.htm http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/europe.htm You can see that some name are purely phonetic (finland, bielarus). A few however, ends with 国, which is the character for country. These names are actually significant (for instance, china is 中国, middle country (middle kingdom) and germany actually is brave country)
msvan 13y ago
It's not really fair to translate the names back into English in this way. Finland, for instance, is 芬兰 which does indeed mean fragrant orchid, but the reason that name was picked is because it's pronounced fēnlán which sounds roughly similar to "Finland" in English. To Chinese people, these are just phonetic loan words and don't carry any meaning beyond being state names. That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though it is meaningless. I might add that "Asia" also is a loan word in Chinese. If you do a literal translation of that name, it comes out as being something along the lines of "secondary/inferior continent". This does not mean that Chinese people think Asia is a bad continent. It's just a phonetic loan.
- randyrand 13y ago
  It should be illegal to show these maps without explanations like this alongside them. p.s. not actually illegal - just severely frowned upon.
- mhurron 13y ago
  > That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though it is meaningless. And Canada is literally 'village.' Meaningless, but a funny bit of trivia. Which is all the literal Chinese names map is.

doyoulikeworms 13y ago

I neither speak nor write nor read Chinese, but someone explained to me that those names are simply rough phonetic approximations. They decided to go with words that weren't offensive, but sound like the country's names, because that's the polite thing to do. I'd love for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to chime in, though!

aenario 13y ago
Here is a helpful table http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/europe.htm http://mandarin.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/europe.htm You can see that some name are purely phonetic (finland, bielarus). A few however, ends with 国, which is the character for country. These names are actually significant (for instance, china is 中国, middle country (middle kingdom) and germany actually is brave country)

msvan 13y ago

It's not really fair to translate the names back into English in this way. Finland, for instance, is 芬兰 which does indeed mean fragrant orchid, but the reason that name was picked is because it's pronounced fēnlán which sounds roughly similar to "Finland" in English. To Chinese people, these are just phonetic loan words and don't carry any meaning beyond being state names. That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though it is meaningless. I might add that "Asia" also is a loan word in Chinese. If you do a literal translation of that name, it comes out as being something along the lines of "secondary/inferior continent". This does not mean that Chinese people think Asia is a bad continent. It's just a phonetic loan.

randyrand 13y ago
It should be illegal to show these maps without explanations like this alongside them. p.s. not actually illegal - just severely frowned upon.
mhurron 13y ago
> That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though it is meaningless. And Canada is literally 'village.' Meaningless, but a funny bit of trivia. Which is all the literal Chinese names map is.