Not political, just curious. In Korean, America is "Migug"

mi/mei is a weird abbreviation of the chinese word for america. a popular (and false) theory is that since mei also means "beautiful" the term for america came from the chinese thinking it was beautiful or the people were beautiful

gug/guo is "country". many countries have that suffix at the end of their korean/chinese names.
the chinese name for china is "zhongguo" zhong meaning "middle" or "centre". it comes from the chinese thinking that their country was the centre of the universe, and is commonly translating in english as "middle kingdom".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/美國

>>74105317
>canada

you literally cannot make this shit up

>>74104938
We use both Amerika and 米国 (beikoku).

>>74105396
>comes to board about international culture
>doesn't bother to learn about international culture
i bet you're one of those meatball-eating fucks who browse the swedish general and the swedish general only

>>74105596
Stop being racist bro, not cool

>>74104938
>The explanation online is that it's phonetic
and in books too
the full name was 亞美理駕 (ya-mei-li-ka) but it got shortened to 美

why you use "rice" though? why didn't you use 芽 or something that sounds "mei"

>>74105708
oops forgot to quote >>74105590
why you use "rice" though? why didn't you use 芽 or something that sounds "mei"

>>74105317
>mi/mei is a weird abbreviation of the chinese word for america
Oh that makes sense. Idk why nothing mentioned that online.
And I heard that the choice to make it "beautiful country" directly was intentional (it says as much on the Chinese embassy website) but it's more coincidence like how Coke directly translates to "the best fucking drink" or w/e. They could have gone with something else but since it was close and had the double meaning it stuck.

>>74105590
is there a reason to use on over the other? does beikoku just "roll off the tongue" easier when speaking Japanese or is more formal?

>>74105708
>>74105762
because the first thing the japanese thought after looking at america on a map was "shit that place could grow a fuckton of rice desu"

>>74104938
I've wondered about about the origins of country names given from other countries. Some may be close and others, it seems pretty far off.
>Deutschland? Nah, fuck that, you're Germany
>Nippon? Nope, Your name is Japan now.

>>74106226
I believe Germany is from the Roman Germania, and Japan is because of the way the Portuguese wrote "Jippon"

At least there's Wikipedia articles on it unlike the Chines name for America

>>74106509
I've seen the one for Japan after thinking about this for a while and I'm sure there's a similar explanation for most. Just seems weird that people wouldn't call a country by the name that the inhabitants call it.

>>74106627
some names are pretty weird
would you call Albania "Shqipëria" like they do? or Central African Republic "Bêafrîka"?
i guess it's just how the countryname arrives and is interpreted, then it's a matter of tradition

>>74107195
I suppose I'd call it by their native names if I heard the pronunciation. However, if I went around doing that, noone else would know what I was talking about and Id end up looking like some autistic tard trying to explain about "correct names".

>>74104938
America - 'Merica - ME/RI/CA
→Me(+i) + guo(country) → Meiguo → 美國 → Migug

Did you understand?