Why is America referred to as "米国" in Japanese? Surely Thailand or Vietnam is a better "rice country"

Why is America referred to as "米国" in Japanese? Surely Thailand or Vietnam is a better "rice country".

haha america is アメリカ
stupid american アメリカ hahahahahahaha

米国 can also be used.

ya アメリカ

the original was 美国 (Mei Guo) in chinese but because "meikuo" sounds close to "murricah"
dunno why 美 became 米 for japs. crazy runes magic

>but because "meikuo" sounds close to "murricah"
than because USA is a "beautiful country". transliteration, not actual word meaning*
also check'em

here you go

幕末にアメリカのことを当て字で「亜米利加」と表記したことから、漢字二文字で国名を表す場合にこの言葉が使われる。植物のコメとは関係がない。

um

According to Wiktionary:
The second kanji character in 亜米利加 (America, “America”) + 国 (koku, “country”). The reason the second character is used instead of the first is because 亜 is already in use as the abbreviation for 亜細亜 (Ajia, “Asia”).

but 米 reads Bei, not Mei

>植物のコメとは関係がない。
:((((((((((((

Because America is written 亜米利加 in kanji

アメ公
アメカス
アメ豚

Does anyone use the Kanji?

>アメ豚
well meme'd sir

kanji is retarded and fuck china

American isn't 美国(beautiful cunt) though. So It's not correct as my thinking.

you know what happens when kanji is banned?
vietnamese happens
you don't want that

dogshit

but 米 reads Bei, not Mei (2)

it's fucking ugly but it works
besides its not like Japan doesn't have it's own system(s)

>SHARTLAND EDUCATION

a-koku ri-koku ka-koku doesnt sound tight or sound "right" in japanese for an idiomatic word so they mustve started to call it bei-koku i guess
only 加 means canada but nobody calls it 加国 this is a similar reason imo

On-readings of 米 are mai/bei/me. Though me is hardly used.

Suppose "rica" means rice, then America becomes A+me+rica, right? So, it can be written like rica country, i.e. 米国, although in fact the "me" part means rice actually in Japanese.

I meant America isn't 美(beautiful) + 国(country).

nobody says "maikoku" but "beikoku"
shouldn't you have changed it for 名国 or 明国 instead so it'd be "meikoku"?

糞国 is better.

That's funny because Koreans call America "Mi-Gook".

Which if you think about it, the origins of the term gook are immediately obvious.

i didnt get what you mean but "rica" doesnt mean rice anyway
米 means rice when you pronounce it as "kome" not "bei"

In Edo era, Japanese people call Yanks as 米利堅(meriken). Because Yank's fucking terrible fucking accent sounds like "meriken", When Yank say American.

똥양인죄송합니다…

but their own systems are deficient. there's a fuckton of homophones but once you see the kanji you immediately know which word is it
just look up kaidan in any dictionary, you'd see there's lots of associated words but once you know what moonrune it has you'll know which of those words it's about. it's super comfy and only something simpler like hangul could replace kanji

Vietnamese is fucked as well. Probably moreso than Kanji.

t. Britshit

What does シャルト mean?

>the guy who is uneducated in japanese asking the japanese guy about his language

Originally, both Ming Chinese and Tokugawa Japanese used 亞墨利加 (Ya mo li jia). The term was referred to pre-US America, coined by the Italian Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci.

When US gained the independence, its official name was 亞墨利加合眾國 (literally, United States of America).

After the Second Opium War between the Qing empire and the Western powers, America's attitude was bit of anti-imperialism or neutral. On the Treaty of Tianjin of 1858, in Chinese, the first line was written:

茲中華大清國與大亞美理駕合眾國因欲固存堅久真誠友誼…

In English version:

The United States of America and the Ta-Tsing Empire, desiring to maintain firm, lasting and sincere friendship…

It's showing the Qing's friendly and positive attitude toward America by replacing 墨 (mo, ink) with 美 (mei, fine), from 亞墨利加 to 大亞美理駕 (Da ya mei li jia).

43 years later, on the Boxer Protocol of 1901, "大亞美理駕" changed to 大美理駕 (Da mei li jia). Then it's abbreviated as "大美國" (Great Fine Country) to match "大清國" (Great Qing Empire). That's how they end up getting "美國" (Fine Country).

The Qing scholar, Wei Yuan, didn't have positive views of the Western powers, included America. America was one of the Western powers (UK, French Empire, and Russian Empire) signing the Treaty of Tianjin to force China to open more ports.

He referred Americans, French, and Russians as "彌夷佛夷鄂夷" (American barbarians, French barbarians, and Russian barbarians). Wei Yuan referred America as "彌利堅" (Mi li jian) rather than 大亞美理駕 (Da ya mei li jia).

Wei Yuan's known for writing the Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志).

Takasugi Shinsaku, a samurai sailed from Japan to China to see what's going on between the Qing and the Western powers. He picked up a copy of Wei Yuan's work, where America was mentioned as 彌利堅 (Mi li jian).

The Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms was important for Japan to study to avoid suffering China's fate.

Japanese changed 亞墨利加 (Amokurika) to 彌利堅 (Miriken). But 彌 (mi, full) was too complicated to write. They replaced it with 米 (mei, rice), they ended up with either 米利堅 (Meiriken) or 米利加 (Meirika).

Then they abbreviated it as 米国 (Rice Country).


Thank you Quora

kuso morasu or pusyaaa like a sound effect in manga. the latter is close to a written word or a meme though

afaik it's written out in kanji for official documents and shit like that.

aaaaaah
they simplified 彌 to 米. no wonder said it didn't "look" correct

thank you Quora

but u have many ricers

The first symbol is an obvious outdoors explosive shart the other one is enclosed , a SHART IN MART if you prefer.