Kanji for English

[Mycernius]

I wondering why is there a Kanji symbol for English? I'd expect them for Chinese, Korean and other near neighbours to Japan, but why English? I can't seem to find one for French, German, Arabic etc. They just appear in Katakana. Also, why is it a seperate word, Eigo, instead of Igirisu-go. Even Japanese is refered to as Nihongo, unless there are other words for Japanese. Seems odd to me, unless there is a perfectly simple reason I just can't find

[undrentide]

Foreign country's name used to be written in kanji, instead of romaji.
英吉利 igirisu (England)
仏蘭西 furansu (France)
独逸 doitsu (Germany)
露西亜 roshia (Russia)
西班牙 supein (Spain)

洪牙利 hangarii (Hungary)
亜米利加 amerika (America)
... just for example.

This page might be interesting for you.
http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/np/aa00np66.htm

Often only the first kanji* of the country name is used to represent the country or its language, name, etc.
e.g.
英国 eikoku = UK or England
英語 eigo = English language
仏語 futsugo = French language
独和辞典 doku-wa-jiten = German-Japanese dictionary

*America is an exception, 米国 beikoku (= the US), 米製 beisei (US made), 訪米 houbei (= visiting the US) - the second kanji is used instead. Maybe because 亜 is used for 亜細亜 ajia (Asia).

[KrazyKat]

Originally Posted by undrentide

露西亜 roshia (Russia)

So on the news today I saw 日ロ　meaning Japan/Russia. I wonder why they used the katakana instead of the Kanji? Maybe Russia's just not common enough? But I've seen australia with 豪, I would have thought Russia would be more common than australia.

[JimmySeal]

All of those kanji spellings are phonetic renditions of the name for each country. Some of them were probably borrowed from Chinese, but some are of Japanese invention.

You're probably right, KrazyKat. Russia can be abbreviated as 露 as in 日露戦争, but I guess it's just not common to do so. There isn't always a completely logical reason.

The complete spelling for Australia is 濠太剌利 but I always see it abbreviated as 豪, not 濠.

[undrentide]

Originally Posted by KrazyKat

So on the news today I saw 日ロ　meaning Japan/Russia. I wonder why they used the katakana instead of the Kanji? Maybe Russia's just not common enough? But I've seen australia with 豪, I would have thought Russia would be more common than australia.

There's no written rules about it (to my knowledge) so I really don't know why.
One reason I can think of is that there are not other countries (I mean among those familiar to Japanese) that begin with "RO" and it is clear and understandable enough to be written in katakana. Another reason that ocurred to me is that ロ is much easier and less troublesome to write compared with 露 which consists of many strokes!


Japan Russia Associates is called 日ロ協会. (It used to be 日ソ協会 by the way.)
露 is often used for language, I think, like 日露・露日辞典 but for country, both ロ and 露 are used. When written in full, it is normally ロシア, 露西亜 is very rare.

[Mukade]

Actually, these days ロ is used instead of 露 in order to distinguish between modern-day Russia and the now-defunct Russian Empire.

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edit:

Originally Posted by undrentide

(It used to be 日ソ協会 by the way.)

The ソ, of course, would be used to distinguish between modern-day Russia (ロ), the now-defunct Russian Empire (露) and the USSR (ソ).

[warakawa]

english as too much influence on the japanese language, kanji is given to show respect i think. just like baseball in japan