Sino-nymic (was Re: Haiku & Toponymics)

[Guenther Ramm]

Fredrik <gadrauhts at hotmail.com> wrote:    > As you said, literal translation can be funny looking. Think about 
> how China would be translated to.
   
  Just some ideas to the topic.
  The Goths could have heard about China in Constantinople (or even met some Chinese tradesmen (?), but it’s doubtful that a Chinatown existed there about that time :) or they could have been told of it by Huns (who are usually identified with Hsiung-nu of the Chinese annals). As it’s quite unclear whether any reminiscence of the Middle Empire had been kept in some way by the European Huns, and in what sound form it could exist in Hunnish, it seems advisable to proceed from some Graeco-Latin word for “China”. I’m not sure about precisely that period, but in Late Latin the common name of China is Sina (hence “sinology”). It could be *Sinaland, or *Seinaland if the vowel was long. In the latter case it should be reckoned with that Seina is attested in Gal. 4:24, 25 for the Mount Sinai: 
aina raihtis af fairgunja Seina in thiwadw bairandei, sei ist Agar; Seina fairguni ist in Arabia... The adjective being *s(e)inisks and the ethnonym maybe *S(e)inos M. –a Pl. or *S(e)inans M.
 –n Pl. (?)
  Given a scarcely possible chance that someone of the Goths might have learned Chinese (!!!), we could suppose a calqued translation like *Midjareiki of those two hieroglyphs for “China” [zhong] & [guo] which I was said to mean “middle” resp. “state”. The people could be then *Midjareikjans / -jons M./F. –n Pl. (meaning “citizens of China” rather than “ethnic Chinese”). That a phonetically closer gawi could be used for [guo] is perhaps an option, though gawi is more likely to designate some smaller territory (like NHG Gau), maybe it would better refer to a particular province, like Tibet is (for now) a “gawi” of China?
   
  So how you like that?
   
  Ualarauans
   
  P.S. “Chinatown” would be *S(e)inatun N. –a. (with a long [u:])
   
  P.P.S. No, *S(e)inatun looks more like the Chinese Wall. For “Chinatown” – perhaps *S(e)inabaurgein N. –a or *S(e)inagatwo?
  

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