Why Is Nihon Called Japan In English?

Woo another two videos in one month time! I love when I do that. This video is very much on the shorter side. In fact I probably wouldn't of made this video unless I hadn't said about it in the first Japan video. But a promise is a promise! Enjoy!

"Kawai Kitsune"
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[DaveRevan]

Japan is still closer to Nihon than Germany is to Deutschland ;)

[Larry]

So, where does "Nippon" come from? :S

[trafo]

Chinese Ribenguo literally translates to "Sun Origin Country", so Japan is indeed the land of the rising sun. This name was adopted by the Japanese themselves as Nihonkoku/Nipponkoku. People eventually dropped the guo/koku part though, which is why Japan today is simple called Nihon in Japanese, and Riben in Chinese, which is why google translate told you that Ribenguo means "country of Japan".

[Hairysteed]

My home country Suomi is known as Finland everywhere else :P

[castlehillagent]

I've always found it fascinating that even in Japanese, there are two names for it, (ie Nihon, and Nippon). But having been there twice, I can definitely say that whatever you call it, Japan, Nihon or Nippon, its a beautiful place indeed. Some of their gardens and natural settings are just breathtaking.

[SimHarrison]

0:55 'rye ben goo oh' seriously?

[WellActually]

Great video, some one else said it but you really should do Germany. It is possibly the most ridiculous country for peoples not agreeing on its name. In German its Deutschland, in hungarian its Németország, in french its Allemagne and as poland ball has shown us in polish it is Niemcy. Really ridiculous and really interesting!

Keep up the good work!

[Ohfishyfishyfish]

Before you try to pronounce a word like "Riben guo" just click "listen" on google translate and practice a couple of times.

[highTideWaves]

Cipangu sounds much much more like the Chinese name of Japan than your attempt at pronouncing "Riben Guo".

[desjungmusic]

As far as I know the closest pronunciation is from Cantonese/Hongkong which is Yap pun/Jap pun, which influenced British English.

and in Taiwanese/Min Nan dialect they called it Jit pun, which influenced how it pronounced in Malaysia and Indonesia (Jepun and Jepang)

[viniciusmorais]

Because Kanji pronounciation is different in many regions. 日本 is Nihon or Nippon in Japan. Yappun in Canton/HK. Riben in Mandarin. Zappun in Shanghai. Jippun in Fujian(south-east coast in China) and Taiwan. So I think "Japon" came from Portuguese Sailor in 16 centuries who heard from coastal Chinese.

[unstoppablefalse]

Is there anything you can't mispronounce? :P

[the_taron]

Do the same on why is Suomi called Finland in English

[frenchfrete]

Indonesian/Malay name for Japan came from Southern Chinese Dialects. Most likely Hokkien. Do know that the character for Japan in Kanji (日本) means "Sun origin". This is due to the location of Japan which is east of China where the sun rises. Kanji are pronounced differently in Chinese dialects. In this case "Japan/Jepang/Jepun" is much closer to Hokkien and Teochew which is pronounced Ji pun(g). Another example is tea. A lot of languages in the world calls it "Tea" or "Cha" or variants of it. Both of which comes from different Chinese dialects.

[keffinsg]

As someone who speaks Mandarin, it clearly comes from Chinese. In Chinese Japan is Riben. It is pronounced something like "rrr-bon" like "ribbon" without the "i" sound. In some Chinese accents it can also be pronounced like "je-bon", where the "je" is like the French word for I (as in Je t'aime)

[MrBoliao]

Must have been us Teochew and Hokkien calling them Jipun that's why its known as Japan

[SamuelAndyPratamaSitohang]

As far as I know, it was the Portuguese who introduce the name Giapan to Indonesian/Malay natives, those Giapan-> Jepang/Japan, not the other way. For example, Indonesian also use the word "Inggris" from Portuguese word for "English", which is "Inglês". But I have no source for this so take this with a heavy amount of salt.

[DjangoClouds]

I've been learning a bit of Mandarin Chinese and I've been wondering about this too:
1. It's worth noting that the Chinese pronunciation of Rìběn (日本) sounds like je-ban. The characters are the same in Japanese as they are in Chinese. As you noted in your video on why Japan is called Land of the Rising Sun - The first character is the Sun, the second is origin or source. Guó - means kingdom or country. So Rìběn guó 日本国 is Land of the Rising Sun. So you'd think it's just a different language pronouncing the name and we got the name from the Chinese but...
2. The pronunciation in Chinese is a bit weird. Normally the first character, 日 or Rì, is pronounced like the "rou" from "rough" but with a slightly softer 'r' sound. This is how it's pronounced when you're talking about the sun or it being hot but when they talk about Japan it becomes more of a "Je" sound. Some maybe it's the influence of other regional dialects.

[Luboman]

日本的國家 = riben de guo jia. That translates in Chinese to "country of Japan." 日本的王國 = riben de wang guo. That translates in Chinese to "Kingdom of Japan." So the two are totally different phrases. Adding and replacing characters completely changes the meaning of a phrase in Chinese. 日本國 = riben guo is just simply "Japan, " so the Chinese you heard is correct. The simplest way to say "Japan" in Chinese, however, is to just drop 國 and make it a simple 日本 = riben.

[andyw.]

I know an other version: The first name for Japan ever recorded, is "Wo, literally the land of dwarfs". Which later became "Wa" in Japanese, the land of peace; and later "Nihon/Nippon", the land of rising sun. Marco Polo has been to Suzhou, where, the Wu-dialect is spoken; And in that dialect, Japan is called Zeppun. Which is closer to the pronounciation Japan.