Re: [OT] CJK -> CJC (Re: Corea?)

From: Patrick Andries (Patrick.Andries@xcential.com)
Date: Mon Dec 15 2003 - 12:12:07 EST

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    ----- Message d'origine -----
    De: "Doug Ewell" <dewell@adelphia.net>

    > Patrick Andries <Patrick dot Andries at xcential dot com> wrote:
    >
    > > Because according to the articles this was the original English
    > > spelling before the occupying Japanese authorities changed the initial
    > > C by a K so that Korea would follow Japan in alphabetical order.
    >
    > This seems very misguided, if true.

    According to the Berliner Zeitung this is what happened in the 1908 Olympic
    Games

    »Die Japaner, so behauptet Historiker Chung, wollten 1908 bei der Londoner
    Olympiade unbedingt vor Korea einmarschieren. In ihrem Übereifer übersahen
    sie aber eine Kleinigkeit. Das Einmarschritual des IOC folgt nicht dem
    englischen, sondern dem französischen Alphabet. Und dort wird Korea mit C
    geschrieben«

    But to no avail, since the countries apparently parade in the French
    alphabetical order.

    >Alphabetical primacy can hardly be
    > considered an effective measure of the relative power or importance of a
    > nation.

    And this is why the host nation has a privileged order of entry (don't
    remember if it is first or last). Order has a certain meaning for some
    people.

    > Furthermore, Japan in the pre-WWII era was still relatively isolated and
    > anti-Western. Did it really matter to the Imperial authorities how
    > things were spelled in English (while simultaneously ignoring the French
    > spellings)?

    I do not know if such reasoning (although true) prove wrong what the
    Berliner Zeitung reports. I have been told people (and countries) sometimes
    do irrational things.

    > Alternative English spellings of non-Latin-alphabet place names were
    > common in the pre-WWII era. In addition to "Corea," you will also find
    > "Tokio" and "Bagdad" in American literature of the day.

    How about Irak ?

    (In French today we still write Corée, Badgad and Irak. Anyone writing
    Korée, Baghdad or Iraq would only appear to be ignorant and transcribing
    directly from American newsfeeds or irreversibly pedant.)

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