несколько ссылок

[avva]

• Очень хороший и интересный сайт о Японии (всё по-английски, за ссылку огромное спасибо kostia_inochkin). Огромное количество очень нетривиальной и интересной информации. Особенно рекомендую список SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions) (очень, очень горячо его рекомендую), но и практически все остальные страницы сайта тоже. Кроме того, по страницам разбросано множество ссылок на другие интересные и нетривиальные сайты и страницы о Японии. Из них особенно хочу отметить Japanese Culture: A Primer for Newcomers.
  
  
• Несколько дней назад mrparker написал, гм, критическую (скажем так) статью о Талькове для дней.ру . После неё к нему потоками стали идти письма от возмущённых (в основном) читателей. И вот теперь он опубликовал 480 таких писем. Очень захватывающее чтиво. Концептуальное, я бы сказал.

Comments

SAQ

[(Anonymous)]

I was enjoying the recondite explanations a great deal until I got to these:

Q. I have long wondered why Japan is called 'Japan' in English. I know why Korea is called Korea, despite it being Hanguk in Korean, can you enlighten me about the etymology of 'Japan'--why not 'Nihon'?--Question submitted by Seth Kleinman
A. The word Japan probably comes from Portuguese or Dutch. Sailors, traders and missionaries from Portugal were the first westerners to visit Japan and they were already calling the country 'Zipangu' or "Jipangu" because they had heard the country called 'Jihpenkuo' in northern China. Another theory is that the word comes from the Dutch word "Japan", which is taken from "Yatpun", the name for Japan which is used in southern China. Because the name was given before the days of political correctness, the Portuguese and Dutch had little interest in using the Japanese words, "Nippon" or "Nihon".

Q. What is the difference between Japan's two names, "Nippon" and "Nihon"?
A. "Nihon" and "Nippon" are just different pronunciations of the same word, which means "the place from which the sun rises". The name was given to the country by the famous Prince Shotoku in the early seventh century. The characters were originally pronounced as "Yamato", which is why you often hear phrases like Yamato damashii (Japanese spirit) today. The characters began to be pronounced as "Nippon" and "Nihon" in the Nara period (709-795 AD). "Nihon" seems to be the more common of the two, but "Nippon" is favoured for postage stamps and at international sporting events.

They clearly have no idea that "Jihpenkuo," "Yatpun," and "Nippon/Nihon" are all the same word, deriving from the Old Chinese phrase nzyet-pwun-kwuk 'sun origin country,' which was invented by the Japanese (and pronounced by them Nip-pon-gu) and then used by the Chinese themselves (giving Jihpenkuo in Mandarin and Yatpunkwok in Cantonese). You can read the whole story here: http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/j/j0016700.html
(Scroll down to "Word history.") If I can't trust their explanations of what I do know about, how can I trust them on what I don't? Fun site, though.

Steve
http://www.languagehat.com/

Re: SAQ

[kostia-inochkin.livejournal.com]

:) That is not an official encyclopedia about Japan. It seems that there are a lot of different opinions about the subjects you ment above. They just put the one they think is interesting. You can send an e-mail with your own ideas about all of this, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.