Paul-Gabriel Wiener on Nostr: Let me see if I've got this right: There were many names for the islands. But the ...
Let me see if I've got this right:
There were many names for the islands. But the Chinese called them Nippon/Nihon ("sun origin") because it's east of them.
Italian merchants wrote down the Indonesian pronunciation of the Chinese name as Gaipan, which became Japan in English.
When a 1943 Batman movie villain said "Actually, I prefer to be called Nipponese," there was a pause for the audience to boo. Because we'd been asked to correct it and didn't want to.
So we still call Nippon "Japan."
There were many names for the islands. But the Chinese called them Nippon/Nihon ("sun origin") because it's east of them.
Italian merchants wrote down the Indonesian pronunciation of the Chinese name as Gaipan, which became Japan in English.
When a 1943 Batman movie villain said "Actually, I prefer to be called Nipponese," there was a pause for the audience to boo. Because we'd been asked to correct it and didn't want to.
So we still call Nippon "Japan."