Names From East Asia
The Chinese name is probably a phonetic approximation of the German proper adjective. The Vietnamese name is based on the Chinese name. The Japanese name is a phonetic approximation of the Dutch proper adjective. The Korean name is based on the Japanese name. This is explained in detail below:
The common Chinese name (simplified Chinese: 德国; traditional Chinese: 德國; pinyin: Déguó) is a combination of the short form of Chinese: 德意志; pinyin: déyìzhì, which approximates the German pronunciation of Deutsch ‘German’, plus 國 guó ‘country’.
The Vietnamese name Đức is the Vietnamese pronunciation (đức ) of the character 德 that appears in the Chinese name.
Japanese language ドイツ (doitsu) is an approximation of the Dutch word duits meaning ‘German’.
It was earlier written with the Sino-Japanese character compound 獨逸 (whose 獨 has since been simplified to 独), but has been largely superseded by the above-mentioned katakana ドイツ. The character 独 is sometimes used in compounds, for example 独文 (dokubun) meaning ‘German literature’, or as an abbreviation, such as in 独日関係 (dokunichi kankei, German-Japanese relations?).
The (South) Korean name Dogil (독일) is the Korean pronunciation of the former Japanese name (see previous section). The compound coined by the Japanese was adapted into Korean, so its characters 獨逸 are not pronounced do+itsu as in Japanese, but dok+il = Dogil. Until 1980s, South Korean primary textbooks adopted Doichillanteu (도이칠란트) which approximates the German pronunciation of Deutschland.
The official North Korean name toich'willandŭ (도이췰란드) approximates the German pronunciation of Deutschland. Traditionally Dogil (독일) had been used in North Korea until 1990s.
Use of the Chinese name (in its Korean pronunciation deokguk, 덕국) is attested for the early 20th century. It is now uncommon.
Read more about this topic: Names Of Germany
Famous quotes containing the words names, east and/or asia:
“I come to this land to ride my horse,
to try my own guitar, to copy out
their two separate names like sunflowers, to conjure
up my daily bread, to endure,
somehow to endure.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 14:21,22.
“Incarnate devil in a talking snake,
The central plains of Asia in his garden,
In shaping-time the circle stung awake,
In shapes of sin forked out the bearded apple....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)