I'm sorry Mr. Fry, that is incorrect.
You might have seen an episode of QI that somehow got around to the names of countries in Chinese. The Chinese name for England was given as "country of heroes". While this is a direct translation, it is an incorrect interpretation.
England in Chinese script looks like this:
The character on the left means hero, and the one on the right means country. Ok, so what am I complaining about?
The Chinese word for hero (in pinyin) is 'ying' which is pronounced roughly as the 'ing' in England.
The hero bit is just a sound borrowing and a coincidence. If back in ancient times ying came to mean something else, like kidneys, then the Chinese name for England would have been kidney country.
England in Chinese script looks like this:
The character on the left means hero, and the one on the right means country. Ok, so what am I complaining about?
The Chinese word for hero (in pinyin) is 'ying' which is pronounced roughly as the 'ing' in England.
The hero bit is just a sound borrowing and a coincidence. If back in ancient times ying came to mean something else, like kidneys, then the Chinese name for England would have been kidney country.
Labels: chinese, Danger you might learn something
posted by ʎ at 6:59 AM
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