Re: Japanese from Tungus
| From: | Rob Haden <magwich78@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, January 25, 2005, 1:09 |
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On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:39:03 -0500, Matt Arriola <azathoth500@...>
wrote:
>I believe "Nihon" is an exonym. You got it right, but it was the
>Chinese who gave Japan that name.
That could very well be true. Japanese has quite a few borrowed words from
Chinese, and 'ni' may be one of them. Is there a Mandarin cognate to the -
hon/-pon element?
Finally, I wonder if 'go' "language" is really from Mandarin 'guo' "nation"
(or a cognate in some other Chinese dialect).
- Rob
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