List of Japanese exonyms

Japanese exonyms are the names of places in the Japanese language that differ from the name given in the dominant language of the aforementioned region. While Japanese names of places that are not derived from the Chinese language generally tend to represent the endonym or the English exonym as phonetically accurate as possible, the Japanese terms for some place names are obscured, either because the name was borrowed from another language or because of some other obscure etymology, such as referring to England (more specifically the United Kingdom) as イギリス (Igirisu), which is based on the Portuguese term for "English", Inglês.^[1] While there is a term for England that is more phonetically accurate to the endonym, イングランド (Ingurando), the term only applies to the Country of England as opposed to the United Kingdom as a whole.

For endonyms derived from the Chinese language, Japanese typically uses the Chinese-derived term and maintains the same meaning and/or kanji of the endonym, albeit with a Japanese version of the pronunciation, or an approximate pronunciation of a historical English exonym if the city is internationally well-known. One detail to be noted, however, is that for the names of certain districts or areas in Hong Kong, the pronunciations of the Japanese endonyms typically try to imitate the Cantonese pronunciation, instead of the Japanese on readings or the Mandarin pronunciation.

Also, while most South Korean places names are derived from words in the Chinese language, Japanese can refer to a Korean place name using Japanese on readings (Jeju 濟州 is Saishū さいしゅう in Japanese), Japanese kun readings (e.g. Incheon 仁川 is Nigawa にがわ in Japanese), or an pronunciation that imitates the Korean endonym name as closely as possible (Itaewon 梨泰院 is Itewon イテウォン in Japanese). Many places name in Korea have at least two of the pronunciations, the first being based on the Japanese on or kun reading and the second being based on the Korean endonym, with the latter being made so that Japanese could navigate and ask for directions more clearly to native Koreans.

The names for nations and cities that existed before major Japanese orthographic reforms in the Meiji era usually have ateji, or kanji characters used solely to represent pronunciation. However, the use of ateji has become far less common, as katakana has largely taken over the role of phonetically representing words of non-Sino-Japanese origin. As significant differences exist between the pronunciations of the Chinese and Japanese languages, many of the ateji terms for the exonyms of foreign, non-Sinitic terms are unrecognizable in Chinese, and likewise, since some of the ateji terms derived from Chinese, the aforementioned terms do not match the Japanese on or kun readings for the pronunciation of the given kanji.

Exonyms for places with Chinese-derived endonyms

Regions of the world

Nations

Former nations

Districts, provinces, regions and states

Cities

Translated names

See also

• Exonym and endonym
• Names of Asian cities in different languages
• Japanese place names
• List of Japanese prefectural name etymologies

References

• Nelson, Andrew N. (1962) The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company)

External links

• List of countries in Ateji