Fwd: A question

[Billionbridges.com]

A Chinese-English translator tentatively delurks:

> But isn't it a wonderful story? Too bad it isn't true.
> It is conceivable that the use of "gook" was reinforced
> by this fortuitous similarity.

My gut feeling would be that not only is it conceivable, but
extremely probable.  I've had the story told to me by both
Canadians who have lived in Korea and Koreans who
grew up in Canada, suggesting that it's become legendary.

> An analogous bogus etymology story which I invented
> myself (although doubtless somebody else invented it
> earlier) derives the word "Yankee" from Chinese "yang
> guei" = "foreign devil" (the "guei" is "ki" in [Sino-]Japanese
> BTW) ... as in "Yankee, go home!"

A more precise translation is "Western devil", as aside
from "ocean" "yang" is used in reference to all things
Western.  Added to that is the fact that a contemporary
Chinese would never use the epithet in reference to, say,
a Japanese or an Indian.  A cursory Google search in
simplified Chinese didn't term up any reference to the
epithet being used in the 19th century to describe
non-Europeans, therefore I wouldn't want to make a
definitive statement.  Complicating that is the fact that
"dongyang" (eastern ocean) is another way of saying
"Japan".

The spelling of "Yang guei" works admirably as a transliteration
for the Chinese-challenged.  In case anyone's interested, the
Pinyin is "yanggui", the Wade-Giles is "yangkuei", and
the Yale version is "yanggwei".

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