CHAT: Nippon (was CHAT: "boocoo")
| From: | Stone Gordonssen <stonegordonssen@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, May 21, 2003, 16:26 |
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>I've heard that "Nippon" was borrowed into some northern dialect, and then
>read
>in Hokkien as something European traders heard as "Japan". "Zipango" is
>supposed
>to have a similar origin, with the final syllable from Chinese "guo".
I just remember, 3 decades ago, seeing a very old used book entitled
_Learning Nipponese_. I thought "Oh, what's this?", picked it up, opened it,
and saw it was Japanese. Alas, I did not buy it.
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