Learn how to say the names of your country in 中文！

[wyq614]

Here we can get to know how to say the names of all the European Countries in Chinese (countries in random order):

阿尔巴尼亚 = a'er ba ni ya
安道尔 = an dao er (transliteration of French: Andorre)
亚美尼亚 = ya mei ni ya
奥地利 = ao di li (a weird transliteration of Oesterreich)
阿塞拜疆 = a sai bai jiang
白俄罗斯 = bai e luo si (白 is "white" for Chinese，俄罗斯 means Russia）
比利时 = bi li shi (I don't know why ...)
波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那 = bo si ni ya he hei sai ge wei na (和/he is "and" for Chinese, also the country is abbreviated as 波黑/bo hei)
保加利亚 = bao jia li ya
克罗地亚 = ke luo di ya
塞浦路斯 = sai pu lu si
捷克 = jie ke (We don't really say "Czech Republic", but only "Czech")
爱沙尼亚 = ai sha ni ya (don't know why...)
丹麦 = dan mai
芬兰 = fen lan
法国 = fa guo
格鲁吉亚 = ge lu ji ya (transliterated from "Gruziya" of Russian)
德国 = de guo
希腊 = xi la (I think it's "Hellas")
匈牙利 = xiong ya li
冰岛 = bing dao (冰/bing is "Ice" for Chinese, 岛 means island...)
爱尔兰 = ai er lan
以色列 = yi se lie
意大利 = yi da li
拉脱维亚 = la tuo wei ya
列支敦士登 = lie zhi dun shi deng
立陶宛 = li tao wan
卢森堡 = lu sen bao
马其顿 = ma qi dun (note: Chinese govt recognizes the country name of "Republic of Macedonia")
马耳他 = ma er ta
摩尔多瓦 = mo er duo wa
摩纳哥 = mo na ge
黑山 = hei shan (黑/hei is "black" for Chinese, 山 is "mountain, hill")
摩洛哥 = mo luo ge
荷兰 = he lan (I think it's from "Holland")
挪威 = nuo wei
波兰 = bo lan
葡萄牙 = pu tao ya (interestingly "葡萄“ is "grape" in Chinese)
罗马尼亚 = luo ma ni ya
俄罗斯 = e luo si (some specialist argue that the pronunciation of e, which does not exist in the word "Russia" comes from Manchu language)
圣马力诺 = sheng ma li nuo ("圣/sheng”means "saint" in Chinese)
塞尔维亚 = sai er wei ya (wei? Don't know why...)
斯洛伐克 = si luo fa ke
西班牙 = xi ban ya
瑞典 = rui dian (sorry, don't know why...)
瑞士 = rui shi (well, also weird)
土耳其 = tu er qi
乌克兰 = wu ke lan
英国 = ying guo

 

[wyq614]

Pronunciation guide:

In Pinyin system (romanization of Chinese characters used in mainland China),
- c is pronounced as an English "ts",
-"zh" is pronunced as "z" but you have to lower your tonguetip when you pronounce it like "sh"
- "r" is pronounced as a "zh" in Nadezhda (Russian girl's name)
- q is pronounced as an Albania "q"
- x is pronounced as an "s" but you have to lower your tongue tip.

When an "i" meets "sh, ch, s, c, q, x", it loses its pronunciation, but you have to pronounce "sh, ch, s, c, q, x" a bit stronger and longer.

 

[zoyuxi]

瑞典 = rui dian (sorry, don't know why...)

This reminds me of the Finnish name for Sweden: Ruotsi. Could that be why?

But that same explanation wouldn't work for the Chinese name of Switzerland...

 

[EscGeek]

????

 

[zoyuxi]

????

斯洛文尼亚 = Sī luò wén ní yǎ

 

[Iuris]

Curious. I'm from Xī bān yá.

 

[Sultana]

e luo si has nothing to do with russia but it sounds quite nice

 

[Yamarus]

比利时 = bi li shi (I don't know why ...)

Like most other examples it does look like a simple transliteration of the country name. I would venture the guess that it is based on the French "Belgique" (--> Be-L-Gi) only with the final "k" (-que) sound dropped. Maybe Chinese does not have the "k" sound in final position.

 

[zoyuxi]

Like most other examples it does look like a simple transliteration of the country name. I would venture the guess that it is based on the French "Belgique" (--> Be-L-Gi) only with the final "k" (-que) sound dropped. Maybe Chinese does not have the "k" sound in final position.

You are correct. In Mandarin Chinese, the "k" sound does not occur in the final position of a word.

 

[greece]

Xi la has anything common with Hellas...