Which still leaves the question why 英国 is treated differently from, say, 独国, 仏国 and 米国 ;D
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Malgas@beehaw.org 4 weeks agoIt’s because “England” has a Japanese style adjective-country formation (英国), which then follows the native pattern for language (英語). By contrast, “Germany” (ドイツ) and “France” (フランス) are borrowed phonetically.
To your complaint about “Japan-language”, note that Japan’s official name is 日本国.
What I can’t explain is why 国 comes along for the ride when it’s China. (中国語)
Lumidaub@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
Malgas@beehaw.org 4 weeks ago
I mean, 独語, and 仏語 are perfectly cromulent, albeit less common than the katakana versions. And 米語 likewise exists, referring specifically to American English.
Lumidaub@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
Lots of words exist, but if they aren’t used, they may as well not (goes for all languages). I recently had a conversation with someone about the German word for shark. The word they knew wasn’t wrong as such and people would understand what they mean but they’d sound weird and old-timey if they used it in normal conversation. I’m sure there are specific situations where 独語 is used but outside of that you’d sound weird. So why is 英語 used alongside ドイツ語?
I’m not really looking for a definite answer here, I know languages are under no obligation to be consistent, this just whinging :)
Lightfire228@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
I vaguely remember from Japanese class that China’s name means “middle country”
But i dunno about that “go” character specifically
Malgas@beehaw.org 4 weeks ago
Yeah, it does, and it’s written the same in Chinese. I guess if 中国 is technically considered a loanword, then 中国語 is consistent with ドイツ語 and フランス語.