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Legidias t1_j6fl8qv wrote

Reply to comment by ZevVeli in ELI5: How do they come up with names for countries in foreign languages? by bentobam

Also, Japan in Cantonese (Canton region was also a huge port / trading district) is pronounced "Yap-bun" which also sounds similar to Japan.

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police-ical t1_j6g5xrq wrote

Being a trading port, Guangzhou was home to Portuguese traders who heard local pronunciations as Cantão, which led to the older English name Canton, which lives on in our name for the Cantonese language/dialect.

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[deleted] t1_j6h65ul wrote

[deleted]

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Rauche t1_j6ha0i9 wrote

Kanto is named after the Kanto region of Japan, not after Canton.

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supagirl277 t1_j6nkbwu wrote

You’re right, I totally pulled that out of my ass with no thought and didn’t really check. That was stupid of me to act like I knew

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