Re: places (Japan)

Matt33 wrote:
>--- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote:
> > Re Japan, and it's various versions (sorry, I've
> > deleted the earlier messages too soon)--   Some of
> > the oldest world maps have it as Cipango-- looks
> > like an Italian attempt at the Chinese name.  I'm
> > not so sure English got "Japan" via the Brits in
> > Malaya (Indonesian is Jepang [dZ@'paN] BTW)-- seems
> > a little late, historically speaking....?
>
>Hmm, well I admit that I don't recall too much from my
>Japan-history classes -- yeah, poor student me...
>Anyhow, I do remember have seen that word before - and
>it does look Italian - but somehow I have the sneaking
>suspicion that the Portuguese were the first ones to
>come to Japan.  In Portuguese, one says Japao (tilde
>over second a)....
Marco Polo heard of Japan during his trip (and I guess other Europeans
must've heard of it on earlier trips), and spelt it _Zipango_. The last bit
is thought to be Chinese _guo_ "country".

                                              Andreas

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp