@hoangkimviet8545

1 year ago

As a Vietnamese, let me explain why we call many countries like that. The names of many countries went to Vietnamese through Chinese. Vietnamese based on what Chinese sounded to call other countries. Then, they used the Sino-Xenic pronunciation (the Vietnamese type) to call them. For example, "Úc" is from the first syllable of "Australia", or "Pháp" is from the letter "F" of "France". Nevertheless, that was not the whole story. We used Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary by our own way to call a number of countries. For example, we called "Luxembourg" by the name "Lục Xâm Bảo". In the past, many countries had such Vietnamese names. However, during historical changes, many of them were omitted. For instance, we used to call Brazil by the name "Ba Tây". But, today, it is "Bra-xin". As for the name of North Korea and South Korea, it is very complicated. The official name of North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, translated into "Cộng hòa Dân chủ Nhân dân Triều Tiên" in Vietnamese. Meanwhile, the official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea, translated into "Đại Hàn dân quốc" (the exact name of South Korea in Korean). To be short, we call North Korea "Triều Tiên" and South Korea "Hàn Quốc". In the past, in North Vietnam, they were called "Bắc Triều Tiên" and "Nam Triều Tiên", because the translation of "Republic of Korea" was word by word "Cộng hòa Triều Tiên". Meanwhile, in South Vietnam, the two parts of the Korean Peninsula were called "Bắc Hàn" and "Nam Hàn". Since 1975, Vietnamese have called these countries by the aforementioned ways. And the current Vietnamese government seems not quite pleased when people call North Korea and South Korea by the old ways, although there is no official regulation on this issue. For the suffix -ien, I learn German and I can explain its origin. This suffix comes from the suffix -ia of Latin and -ia means "the land of...". For example, Mongolia means "the land of the Mongols". Germans use the equivalent -ien with the same meaning. So, probably, the story is the same for Swedes. I did not get satisfied with the explanation of Oskar in this video, so I write it now. As for the letter "ã" in Portuguese", it is a nasal vowel. Basically, it happens when you let an amount of air go through your nose. In English, there are nasal sounds indeed. But, they are not nasal vowels but nasal consanants. For example, the -ing suffix has a nasal consanant. Also, it is not true to say “Hợp CHỦNG quốc Hoa Kỳ”. It should be “Hợp CHÚNG quốc Hoa Kỳ”. Thanks for reading and responding my comment!

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