Folks, the more I research, the more I seem to understand the commonality of all languages, especially ancient languages and naming conventions.
In studying the language of an ancient South American indigenous tribe called the Chibcha, I have come across interesting parallels with the Japanese, Egyptian, Greek, Judaic, and Celtic languages, Gods, and mythologies.
One of the immediate coincidences, commonalities, involves the "Nee" name, which might explain very nicely how the names Nihon and Nippon originated.
Yes, the end result of my newest research pertains to the accepted... "Land of the Rising Sun", and "Land where the sun first rises", and "Origin of the Spirits".
But the direct, explicit meaning is even more interesting, and one of the origins relates I believe to the God "Pan", who was God of fertility, and male spirit, and yes, Male Appendage. The Nee plus the Pan might have a deeper meaning, which you might appreciate.
But before I give away my research "coincidences" and "amateur research conclusions", can anyone give me etymology meanings of the three letters... "Hon"?
Could this be related to the Han dynasty? Is there a character in ancient Japanese mythology called Han or Hon?
The Wikipedia explanation is...
Names of Japan - Wikipedia
I could appreciate most of this explanation, but I wanted an even earlier explanation than 700 AD.
Like I have mentioned before, I am continuously amazed at how the names of Japan-Shippan-Chipaningo, Nihon-Niantic, and Nippon-Neponsit appear explicitly in the area of Japan and Long Island, and these names must go back several thousand years. There even seems to be a "Pan" artistic reference on the ocean-floor shelf, west of Gorda, California.
Both have virtually identical shapes, and both face the rising sun. I am sure more than a few of you realize where this story may be going, but I now have a plausible research answer to explain everything except the "Han".
I now know what Japan and Nippon most probably mean, but back to the question I am humbly requesting...
Can anyone give me the earliest etymology meanings of the three letters... "Hon"?
Thank you for any serious help.
In studying the language of an ancient South American indigenous tribe called the Chibcha, I have come across interesting parallels with the Japanese, Egyptian, Greek, Judaic, and Celtic languages, Gods, and mythologies.
One of the immediate coincidences, commonalities, involves the "Nee" name, which might explain very nicely how the names Nihon and Nippon originated.
Yes, the end result of my newest research pertains to the accepted... "Land of the Rising Sun", and "Land where the sun first rises", and "Origin of the Spirits".
But the direct, explicit meaning is even more interesting, and one of the origins relates I believe to the God "Pan", who was God of fertility, and male spirit, and yes, Male Appendage. The Nee plus the Pan might have a deeper meaning, which you might appreciate.
But before I give away my research "coincidences" and "amateur research conclusions", can anyone give me etymology meanings of the three letters... "Hon"?
Could this be related to the Han dynasty? Is there a character in ancient Japanese mythology called Han or Hon?
The Wikipedia explanation is...
Names of Japan - Wikipedia
Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where the sun originates,[1] and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastern position relative to China. Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa (倭) or Wakoku (倭国).[2] Wa was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the Three Kingdoms Period.
Although the etymological origins of "Wa" remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago (perhaps Kyūshū ), named something like *ˀWâ or *ˀWər 倭. Carr (1992:9–10) surveys prevalent proposals for Wa's etymology ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronouns waga 我が "my; our" and ware 我 "I; oneself; thou") to shameful (writing Japanese Wa as 倭 implying "dwarf"), and summarizes interpretations for *ˀWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short'." The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. It defines 倭 as shùnmào 順皃 "obedient/submissive/docile appearance", graphically explains the "person; human" radical 亻 with a wěi 委 "bent" phonetic, and quotes the above Shijing poem. "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr (1992:9) suggests "they transcribed Wa as *ˀWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. Bowing is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting" (Hou Han Shu, tr. Tsunoda 1951:2), and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground. This is the way they show respect." (Wei Zhi, tr. Tsunoda 1951:13). Koji Nakayama interprets wēi 逶 "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translates Wō 倭 as "separated from the continent." The second etymology of wō 倭 meaning "dwarf, pygmy" has possible cognates in ǎi 矮 "low, short (of stature)", wō 踒 "strain; sprain; bent legs", and wò 臥 "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)". Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to a Zhūrúguó 侏儒國 "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possibly Okinawa Island or the Ryukyu Islands. Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development.
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it due to its offensive connotation, replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance". Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character 大 (literally meaning "Great"), so as to write the name as Yamato (大和) (Great Wa, in a manner similar to e.g. 大清帝國 Great Qing Empire, 大英帝國 Greater British Empire). However, the pronunciation Yamato cannot be formed from the sounds of its constituent characters; it refers to a place in Japan and is speculated to originally mean "Mountain Gate" (山戸).[3] Such words which use certain kanji to name a certain Japanese word solely for the purpose of representing the word's meaning regardless of the given kanji's on'yomi or kun'yomi, a.k.a. jukujikun, is not uncommon in Japanese. Other original names in Chinese texts include Yamatai country (邪馬台国), where a Queen Himiko lived. When hi no moto, the indigenous Japanese way of saying "sun's origin", was written in kanji, it was given the characters 日本. In time, these characters began to be read using Sino-Japanese readings, first Nippon and later Nihon, although the two names are interchangeable to this day.
Nippon appeared in history only at the end of the 7th century. The Old Book of Tang (舊唐書), one of the Twenty-Four Histories, stated that the Japanese envoy disliked his country's name Woguo (Chinese) (倭國), and changed it to Nippon (Japanese; Mandarin Chinese: Rìběn, Toisan Cantonese: Ngìp Bāwn) (日本), or "Origin of the Sun". Another 8th-century chronicle, True Meaning of Shiji (史記正義), however, states that the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country's name to Nippon. The sun plays an important role in Japanese mythology and religion as the emperor is said to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the legitimacy of the ruling house rested on this divine appointment and descent from the chief deity of the predominant Shinto religion. The name of the country reflects this central importance of the sun.
Cipangu described on the 1492 Martin Behaim globe. The English word for Japan came to the West from early trade routes. The early Mandarin Chinese or possibly Wu Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Toisanese (a language in the Yue Chinese subgroup), 日本 is pronounced as [Ngìp Bāwn, which sounds nearly identical to Nippon. The Malay and Indonesian words Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun were borrowed from non-Mandarin Chinese languages, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in ]Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelt Giapan.
In English, the modern official title of the country is simply "Japan", one of the few nation-states to have no "long-form" name. The official Japanese-language name is Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku (日本国), literally "State of Japan".From the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II, the full title of Japan was the "Empire of Greater Japan" (大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku). A more poetic rendering of the name of Japan during this period was "Empire of the Sun." The official name of the nation was changed after the adoption of the post-war constitution; the title "State of Japan" is sometimes used as a colloquial modern-day equivalent. As an adjective, the term "Dai-Nippon" remains popular with Japanese governmental, commercial, or social organizations whose reach extend beyond Japan's geographic borders (e.g., Dai Nippon Printing, Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, etc.).
I could appreciate most of this explanation, but I wanted an even earlier explanation than 700 AD.
Like I have mentioned before, I am continuously amazed at how the names of Japan-Shippan-Chipaningo, Nihon-Niantic, and Nippon-Neponsit appear explicitly in the area of Japan and Long Island, and these names must go back several thousand years. There even seems to be a "Pan" artistic reference on the ocean-floor shelf, west of Gorda, California.
Both have virtually identical shapes, and both face the rising sun. I am sure more than a few of you realize where this story may be going, but I now have a plausible research answer to explain everything except the "Han".
I now know what Japan and Nippon most probably mean, but back to the question I am humbly requesting...
Can anyone give me the earliest etymology meanings of the three letters... "Hon"?
Thank you for any serious help.