Re: Butchered Foreign Names

From: "Yoon Ha Lee"

> In Korean Betzwieser might be mutilated into Baessubiseoru, assuming a
> Korean would even bother.  Likewise, France becomes Buranso, Germany
> becomes Doichi...and the U.S., for a reason I can't remember, is Miguk.
I don't know Korean, but "Mi" could be either "rice" or "beautiful" + "guk",
"country".
In Chinese, at least, the "mi" (Chinese, "mei3") is supposed to come from
A*me*rica, and they grafted the character "beautiful" onto it. Older
Japanese uses "rice" ("Beigoku", as opposed to the more modern katakana
"Amerika"); older Chinese may, too. Korean follows the Japanese example?...

Kou