Re: CHAT: "boocoo"
| From: | Roger Mills <romilly@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, May 20, 2003, 17:59 |
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John Cowan wrote:
> > or "Japan" [dZ@'p&n] out of "Nippon"
>
> Probably through some kind of Chinese, like "ribenguo" or the like.
> Chinese initial "r" is pretty close to /Z/.
Aha. I'd seen "Cipango" on old maps and assumed it was Portuguese based;
but if it was adapted by some Italian (maybe via Marco Polo??), [tSipaNgo]
comes close indeed.
Now, how did we get Ceylon from "Serendip"? (the last part of which would be
Indic -dvipa 'island' at least)
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