Summary Details
| Query: |
Near/Middle/Far East in Different Languages
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| Author: | Caren Brinckmann | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Semantics
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| Summary: |
A week ago I posted the following question:
- --------------------------------------------------------- I am currently writing a term paper about perspectivity in language. As an example for the influence of a certain perspective on a language's vocabulary I chose the German words ''Nahost'' (Middle East, lit. 'Near East') and ''Fernost'' (Far East). Since these terms only make sense from a Europe-centered perspective, I was wondering whether non-European languages use similar constructions for the same or other areas on the world map. - ---------------------------------------------------------- I would like to thank Zev bar-Lev, Fernando Berm?dez, Chiao Yun-Chuang, Madalena Cruz-Ferreira, Peter T. Daniels, Ruth Goetz, Kevin Johnson, Bill Rockenbach, Lameen Souag, and Richard Watson Todd for their helpful responses. Below is a compilation of their replies with detailed data regarding English, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Algonkian. Interestingly, even the non-European languages Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Chinese and Japanese nowadays have a term that literally translates as ''Middle East''. - ------- English - ------- Peter T. Daniels: In English, ''Near East'' usually refers to premodern times, and ''Middle East'' refers to the present. In the US, at any rate, we now tend to say ''East Asia'' rather than ''Far East''; but ''Southwest Asia'' is rarely used for ''Middle East.'' (There doesn't seem to be any ''political correctness'' problem with ''ancient Near East,'' so that phrase is still used routinely.) Zev bar-Lev: We Americans also most usually call the Americas the 'Western hemisphere' -- a Europocentric term. - ------- Spanish - ------- Fernando Berm?dez: Terms for ''Middle East'': ''Medioriente'', ''Medio Oriente'', ''Oriente Medio'' (all lit. ''Middle East''), ''Cercano Oriente'' (lit. ''Near East'') and ''Asia Menor'' (lit. ''Smaller Asia'') Terms for ''Far East'': ''Lejano Oriente'' (lit. ''Far East'') If you use ''Oriente'' only, then you mean ''Far East''. Don't forget that: ''Lejano Oeste'' (''Far West'') - ------ Hebrew - ------ Zev bar-Lev: Hebrew uses the ''externally motivated'' (translated from western languages) 'middle east' (ha-mizrahh ha-tikhon) or the internally motivated'' 'our area' (ezorenu). - ---------------- Arabic + Persian - ---------------- Lameen Souag: In Arabic, North Africa and the Middle East+Egypt are respectively referred to as ''al-maghrib'' and ''al-mashriq'', the West and East. mashriq ~ east-land (ma- ''place of'' + sharq ''east'') maghrib ~ west-land (ma- + gharb ''west'') The Levant is referred to as ''al-sha'm'', from an old term for left/North, and the word Yemen likewise comes from a term meaning right/South. Ironically, many Middle Eastern languages have now borrowed the term ''Middle East'' from Europe; thus Arabic calques it as sharq al-awsat (name of a major paper; sharq = east, al-awsat= the-middle) and Persian as khaavar-e miane. - ---- Thai - ---- Richard Watson Todd: Thai uses West Asia, Middle Asia and East Asia as the terms which are far more straightforward. - ---------------- Chinese/Mandarin - ---------------- Lameen Souag: A few China-centred terms that could be seen as examples: Zhong1guo2 (''China'') = Midland Chao3xian2 (''Korea'') = morning freshness (Korea being to the east) Ri4ben3 (''Japan'') = sun-origin (even further east - this term was actually coined in Japan from Chinese characters, though) Chiao Yun-Chuang: In Mandarin, we also have similar constructions, the words ''zhong dong'' which means Middle East, and ''yuan dong'' Far East. Ruth Goetz: In Chinese, the term Zhong Dong (literally ''Middle East'') is used for the Middle East. I think this is especially interesting because China, Zhongguo, literally means Middle Country, and that's how they saw themselves historically. Yet, they refer to the Middle East, which is to their west, as ''Zhong Dong,'' clearly adopting a European perspective (or at least nomenclature). Zev bar-Lev: However, the Chinese word for China Junggwo -- Middle-King- dom, is not Sinocentric, historically, but rather based on an earlier kingdom that was in the center of China, but later expanded. - -------- Japanese - -------- Bill Rockenbach: I believe Japanese also refers to Middle/Near East with those terms: chuutou: middle+east, or chuukintou: middle+near+east I haven't heard anything like ''Far East'', however. Zev bar-Lev: As a further example, note that Nihon 'Japan' in Japanese means 'Sun-Source', i.e. 'Land of the Rising Sun' -- a Sinocentric term. Lameen Souag: The old Japanese term for Europeans was ''nan-ban'', southern barbarians, because the Portuguese ships always came from the south. - --------- Algonkian - --------- Lameen Souag: A similar case might be ''Wabenaki'', lit. ''sunrise'', variants of which are used by many Algonkian languages to refer to their lands on the eastern seaboard of the US, which only makes sense relative to a presumed original homeland further inland. - Caren Brinckmann Saarland University, FR 4.7 Institute of Phonetics P.O.Box 151150, 66041 Saarbruecken, Germany Phone: +49-681-3024244 |
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| LL Issue: | 12.2473 | |
| Date Posted: | 04-Oct-2001 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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