Darwin Beikoku no Akuma Posted May 30, 2000 Share Posted May 30, 2000 Hey guys, My freackin name/password got corrupted again. I kept the name kind of similar, an unwed redhead to the first to figure it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phandaal Posted May 30, 2000 Share Posted May 30, 2000 Doesn't that stand for American devil or something like that. Been a while since I've studied Japanese. -Murgen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Literally translates as rice country devil but the meaning is American devil. Funny they would refer to the US as rice country. Makes sense though as their economy was based on rice and the US's agricultural capability is rather huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark IV Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darwin: Literally translates as rice country devil but the meaning is American devil. Funny they would refer to the US as rice country. Makes sense though as their economy was based on rice and the US's agricultural capability is rather huge.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I was curious enough about this to ask Her Imperial Majesty, my blushing Chrysanthemum, a native Japanese. She did not know why the name for America came from rice, "it just does". Then I found this: "The `bei' in `beikoku' actually means `rice' and is written with the kanji ÊÆ. However this has nothing to do with rice production. It originates from a kanji method of writing `amerika' (America, the USA) as °¡ÊÆÍø²Ã. "The reason Japanese uses the `me' kanji (ÊÆ) of `amerika' rather than the `a' one (°¡) is because Japanese uses the `a' kanji as an abbreviation of `ajia' (asia): this originates from the kanji writing of `ajia' as °¡ºÙ°¡." -from http://andys.stun.de/databases/texte/japanfaq.html#beikoku Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeydz Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Come again??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbaro Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Mark, does this produce something like a phonetic result, or a metaphorical one? Phonetic seems like quite a streach, but then I am totally ignorant about what is going on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Nice gooblygook But confusing, yes it does mean rice but no it doesn't have anything to do with production? I understand the use of kanji's phonetically but it still seems odd to me. I've noticed when studying history a lot of the material is manipulated to reflect well (or bad depending) on the state. This is purely conjecture on my part but I could easily see the official decree on this as being tied to state image. Rice is big in Japan, For the US to be "rice country" we would in essence be more powerful image wise. I don't see it as too much of a stretch for them to deny that implication of the word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark IV Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 Download the Japanese character set option from your friends at MS and all will be clear- as mud. As I understand it, the Martian characters above were Kanji with a phonetic representation, instead of the usual ideogram deal. The rice character (bei) was used to represent the "A" in America, because the hiragana (phonetic) "a" was already being used as a standard abbreviation for "Asian", so they wanted to avoid "a" confusion with another geographic/ethnic identity. Etymology is interesting and controversial enough in western languages, without this. Dunno about the conspiracy theory, but it's not beyond plausibility... isn't that how we got "fernsprecher" over "telefon"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moriarty Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darwin: Literally translates as rice country devil but the meaning is American devil. Funny they would refer to the US as rice country. Makes sense though as their economy was based on rice and the US's agricultural capability is rather huge.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Must be all the Budweiser. ------------------ We are both men of action. Lies do not become us. — Westley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zamo Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 So Darwin, the blazes with the linguistics...We all want to know if you're going to make good on your promise and provide Phandaal with the unwed redhead...and if he passes, can I have her? My grandfather always told us never to date redheads as they were all insane. My grandmother was a redhead... Zamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted May 31, 2000 Share Posted May 31, 2000 He only half got it, I got a concilatory GG instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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