What do people call their countries in their own languages?

[AShadeOfClear]

Do Chinese call their country China? Do Pakistanis call it Pakistan? People around the world would call their own countries by the same, or similar names in their languages, right? If it were some kind of name that was just assigned to the nation, it could have just been an English-sounding name and not Sri Lanka.

PS: I am not intoxicated from any substance at this moment.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Sverige

 

[wfbberzerker]

spain - españa
mexico - mexico (pronounced meh-hee-co)
germany - deutschland

thats all i can think of right now.

 

[AShadeOfClear]

Sverige

?

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: AShadeOfClear

Sverige

?

Sverige = Sweden

 

[StattlichPassat]

Usually it's pronounced differently for the locals. I know that the locals in Austria and the region know Vienna as 'Wien'.

 

[andrey]

Russia = Rossiya

Ukraine = Ukraina

 

[silverpig]

Uh, Canada

 

[dafatha00]

There's a Chinese word for China. In fact, there's Chinese words for all 50 states in the US.

 

[AZGamer]

Poland = Polska

 

[AShadeOfClear]

There's a Chinese word for China.

And I take it this word isn't the same as what they themselves call China?

 

[eLiu]

hm...chinese PHRASE for china translates to the 'middle kingdom'. Tho more or less, it was meant to say that China is the center of the universe.

chinese phrase for United States, directly translated, is the "beautiful country"...dunno why

 

[PlatinumGold]

Korea = Han beloved patriot in Korean. beloved patriot is where we get the term "beloved patriot" when referring to asians.

it started during the Korean war but really came into prominence during the vietnam war, ironically there were no "gooks" in vietnam.

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: eLiu
hm...chinese PHRASE for china translates to the 'middle kingdom'. Tho more or less, it was meant to say that China is the center of the universe.

chinese phrase for United States, directly translated, is the "beautiful country"...dunno why

england in chinese = the country of the handsome, intelligent
france in chinese = the country of law
germany in chinese = the country of courtesy (not sure about this one)
spain in chinese = the country of west
america in chinese = the country of beautiful see chinese people don't hate you

they all don't really mean anything... just that the words happened to mean something from phonic translation

I asked my dad about china being in the centre of the world (IT'S NOT MIDDLE KINGDOM, IT NEVER WAS, it's "middle country", not kingdom), hell, the earth is round right so all other countries, in perspective, would be in the centre of the earth's surface

i speak cantonese... so these are the cantonese translations but im sure chinese is the same

 

[alphatarget1]

Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Usually it's pronounced differently for the locals. I know that the locals in Austria and the region know Vienna as 'Wien'.

wien=vienna
koeln (can't type umlauts on this laptop... too lazy to set it to international)=cologne
what else...
bayern=bavaria
that's all i can think of...maybe some german guy/girl can lighten this n0ob up

 

[chocobaR]

Canada --> Canada

 

[alphatarget1]

lol
quebec=quebec

 

[Nemesis77]

Finland = Suomi

 

[UCDznutz]

philippines - pilipinas

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: eLiu
hm...chinese PHRASE for china translates to the 'middle kingdom'. Tho more or less, it was meant to say that China is the center of the universe.

Well, that is the truth. Since the universe has no limits, every single point in space can be considered to be in the center of the universe, since that point has equal distance to the borders of the universe. I could say that I'm in the center of the universe, and I would be correct.

 

[Nefrodite]

they all don't really mean anything... just that the words happened to mean something from phonic translation

Its not just phonetic translation. the words are the ones literally used. the words for american are literally beautiful and country. they don't just sound that way.

 

[joohang]

spain in chinese = the country of west

I could be mistaken, but it's the country of the western peninsula.

I asked my dad about china being in the centre of the world (IT'S NOT MIDDLE KINGDOM, IT NEVER WAS, it's "middle country", not kingdom), hell, the earth is round right so all other countries, in perspective, would be in the centre of the earth's surface

i speak cantonese... so these are the cantonese translations but im sure chinese is the same

"Middle Kingdom" is a commonly used translation of chongguo. Some Chinese people also like to refer themselves as the "people of Tang".

"Middle Kingdom" appeared in Chinese and Korean historical records for thousands of years. It has more metaphorical significance to emphasize that China was the centre of civilization - and they did have a pretty good basis to argue that. Although it's been a while and I forgot some stuff, you should be aware of that traditional Chinese science and geography is different. In some maps of China, it was drawn as though China did occupy the centre of the world of civilization. Although there were some exceptions, China generally didn't care about the land of the barbarians, as long as they weren't a threat to their stability.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: joohangSome Chinese people also like to refer themselves as the "people of Tang".

Poontang ?

 

[Scouzer]

I call Canada "So politically screwed over it isn't even funny". It isn't official, yet, but I think a lot of people agree.

 

[johnjbruin]

America is pronounced

Um-reek-ahh

where i am originally from.