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Show ij Take lUord i Ij For III I By FRANK COLBY l! WHY IS JAPAN CALLED NIPPON? Beverly Hills: We have been told often that Japanese words never end in a consonant. Then what about "Nippon"? And whence come the names Nippon and Japan? L.C. Answer: Thousands of Japanese words end with the consonant "n." Otherwise, all native words end with a vowel. It must be noted, however, that the Japanese, with their natural acquisitiveness, have added large numbers of English words to their language, especially occidental terms for which no native words exist. A few such words have been borrowed without change in spelling, spell-ing, and may end in consonants other than "N." But, for the most part, English words are Nipponized so as to conform to the end-with-a-vowel pattern, thus: Cream: Kuriimu, Pilot: Pairotto, Match: Matchi, Roast Beef: Rosu Biifu. The name Japan evolved from Marco Polo's account of visiting a group of marvelous islands off the east coast of Asia. He gave the islands the name of Zipansju, a corruption cor-ruption of a word meaning "sun origin." The English changed Zi-pangu Zi-pangu to Cipango, and this, in turn, finally became Japan. The original Japanese name for the islands was Nihon, meaning "origin of light," hence the familiar famil-iar translation, "The Land of the Rising Sun." Later. Nihon was changed to Nippon (English pronunciation: pronun-ciation: Nip-pon; Japanese: NYIP-pone), NYIP-pone), and Dai Nippon, "great Japan," Ja-pan," became the official name. Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. |