Comment on How do names of countries get translated? What is the reason why Nippon/Nihon is called Japan or Ellada is called Greece in English?

hellothere@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

The short answer is that the name for “old world” countries in a language isn’t translated, it is simply what “we” call “them”, not what “they” call themselves.

Using Greece as an example for English, English has a lot of French influence, which in turn had a lot of Latin influence. It is believed the early Latin (ie modern day Italian) peoples first met Graecians, a tribe likely from Boeotia in modern day Greece, and used the name to refer to all people from the same place.

A more modern or current example would be how people often called The Netherlands, Holland. Same idea, just several millenia apart.

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