this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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I've always wondered how we got Japan for a place that calls itself Nippon.
Tbf, I've looked it up a few times and forgotten, so I guess I don't feel that strongly about it.
I mean... similarly: How did we get "China" from ZhongGuo? π€
Wikipedia says from Portuguese, through Persian, back to Sanskrit, being the grand daddy of English, calling it "cina", and/or it has to do with Qin Dynasty that unified China.
Probably better than whatever bullshit they would have gotten from Zhongguo if "Peking" was as good as they could do with "Beijing"
Sanskrit is more like English's uncle than granddaddy: English is from Proto-Germanic, and both Proto-Germanic and Sanskrit are from Proto-Indo-European.