Comment on "United States" in French (États-Unis) would have made a very confusing acronym

foggy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Japan? AnimeLand

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  • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I learned not that long ago the Japanese refer to Japan as Nippon, and that stuck with me

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan

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    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      They usually say Nihon instead of Nippon.

      Some English used to use words derived from nippon as well but they mostly dropped out of the language not too long after WWII, prob bc nip is an old slur for Japanese people. There’s an ee cummings poem that refers to a piece of “nipponized steel”.

      allpoetry.com/…/13587560-plato-told-by-e.e.-cummi…

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      • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Son of a gun, cool! Do you happen to know if it was a transliterative swap (I’m not sure if that’s what it could be called), where Nippon and Nihon actually sound similar enough if your native language is Japanese?

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• justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Russia == Rossiya doesn't belong in that list.

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  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Spain and españa are also just cognates

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• DrunkenPirate@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Im happy with it. Better than 中国 or .مصر No idea how to read nor how to speak it out.

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  • hera@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    A transliteration would be fine, eg Nihon, Zhongguo

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    • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Is that what my wife was trying to say?

      old.lemmy.world/comment/20033856

      Fuck it. Japan it is.

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• dubyakay@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Because no one can say Magyarország, and it’s easier to make fun of being Hungary for Turkey.

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  • foggy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Oman, Iran, with Chad, to Chile bc I was Hungary for Turkey 😋

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• megrania@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Dunno, as a German, I’d find it ahistorical if everybody was using “Deutschland” … the nation-state as an idea, and a unified nation state, are relatively young. Before that, what we call Deutschland today was a mess. It’s no surprise that romance languages use some or another variation of “Allemagne” … the german dialect spoken around the southwestern border is still called “Allemannisch” even in Germany, same with “Saxon” and the variations “Saksa” to the east …

  I kinda prefer it the way it is in this case, honestly …

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• shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m annoyed by the inverse. I speak English, why shouldn’t I use English words? I use English words for everything else in life. Does every other country say “United States of America”?

  “Because that’s what I call it and so should every other language!”

  See how that sounds?

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  • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    And honestly, some of them do just translate (more or less). Like España vs Spain, pretty much any Spanish word that starts with es(consonant) drops the leading e when translated to English (estado, estudiante escuela for state, student, and school). We also don’t have the same o/a suffices. So that leaves spañ, except I don’t think any Spanish word ends with ñ (it makes a “ny” sound to bridge with the next letter, for those who don’t know) and Spain comes pretty darn close.

    Not too mention that pronunciations and even alphabets are bound to change. Just how much do you want to stay authentic? Because if I start talking about عُمان (Google says that means Oman in Arabic, and looks about right from what I remember seeing on license plates there) I’m going to lose a lot of people.

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    • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Asked my half-Japanese wife how to say “Japan” in Japanese. First she said “Japan”, then “Nippon” pronounced “Nihon” (silent P), then “Nippongo” (silent P), or something I can’t type exactly. She also wrote down “Wakarami” with a note “I don’t know”. She was born and bred in the Philippines, so there’s that twist.

      Now I’m totally confused, fuck it, Japan it is.

      So yeah, how authentic do you want to be?! Bitching about such things is a sign I can’t take one seriously.

      I’m not insensitive. Lady at Lowe’s saw my Ukraine patch and said, “Slava Ukraini!” I said it back, but came on here to ask for proper pronunciation.

      And Turkey is fucking Turkey. Fuck the haters.

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• pedz@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The Netherlands, but in English the language is called Dutch.

  But I prefer when it happens to cities. Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen. Liège or Luik or Lüttich. Ghent or Gand or Gent.

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• FishFace@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  And while we’re at it, why do languages have the audacity to use ANY words different from other languages!

  See how this sounds?

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