洋人也讲究“正名”：格鲁吉亚要日本改变其国名译法

2009年3月27日，中青在线
http://news.ifeng.com/world/200903/0327_16_1079093.shtml

　　[环球时报特约记者梁小逸报道] 综合日媒和俄媒报道，去年八月俄罗斯与格鲁吉亚在南奥塞梯发生冲突，两国关系迄今未见改善。俄格关系的紧张甚至影响到了日本。由于在日语中，格鲁吉亚国名来自俄语音译，格鲁吉亚外长巴克拉泽不久前在出访日本时，要求日本政府重新翻译其国名。

　　俄“塔斯社”报道，巴克拉泽希望日本将其国名按照英语发音翻译，而不是按照俄语发音。日本外务省已经证实了上述消息。日本外务省新闻办表示，格鲁吉亚政府希望日本将其现在的“格鲁吉亚”国名翻译成“佐治亚”。格政府还表示，不希望用格鲁吉亚语“萨卡尔特维洛”来替代。俄媒称，日本政府正在考虑格方提议。

　　据了解，中日两国对格鲁吉亚国名的译法都来自俄语。格鲁吉亚人称自己的祖国为“萨卡尔特维洛”（Sakartvelo）。

　　在英语中，格鲁吉亚被称作“Georgia”，与美国的佐治亚州同名。也正因为如此，去年俄格冲突发生时，一些粗心且无知的美国网民听到俄罗斯封锁格鲁吉亚后，误以为俄军进入了美国本土，要求俄军撤出美国，结果闹出了国际笑话。

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/christian_adams/blog/2008/08/15/were_all_cartoonists_now

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Japan talks its way into trouble with Georgia

Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5974247.ece

For all its subtlety and beauties the Japanese language has one weakness — despite a love of borrowed foreign words it has great trouble pronouncing them.

This is the country where globalisation is rendered as guroubarizeeshyon and an hors d'oeuvres is oudoburu.

Now this unique way with words has become a diplomatic matter, after the Georgian Foreign Minister demanded that Japan change its mangled version of the name of his country.

Instead of the current term for Georgia — Gurujia — Grigol Vashadze wants his country to be known in Japanese as Joujia. Mr Vashadze has made a formal request to Tokyo and bureaucrats there are studying the proposal earnestly.

The request has as much to do with politics as aesthetics. "Guruujia is based on the Russian name for Georgia [Gruziya]," Mr Vashadze told Hirofumi Nakasone, his counterpart in Tokyo. "So we want you to change it."

Japan's problems with loan words arise because, despite the complexity of its grammar and writing system, it is a relatively simple language to pronounce. Foreign words are rendered in an alphabet known as katakana, whose characters represent each of the 46 basic Japanese sounds.

A language such as English has many sounds for which there is no Japanese equivalent: such as "th" and a distinct "l" and "r" — hence the mangling as foreign diphthongs and trills are squeezed into the narrow confines of katakana. The results range from the straightforward (Itaria — Italy) to the near incomprehensible (Rosanzerusu — California).

The system produces strange confusions: in Tokyo, Austrians (who live in Osutoria) are only a syllable away from being mistaken for the inhabitants of Osutoraria (Australia).

Matters are further confused by the names of some countries having been introduced to Japan by third countries. It was 16th-century Portuguese sailors who told the samurai about Inglês, hence the Japanese word for Britain: Igirisu. In some countries control of how a name is pronounced has been a matter of intense importance. The far-right Indian political party Shiv Sena has threatened repeatedly to attack institutions that use the old name Bombay instead of Mumbai.

In 1997 the Chinese Government demanded that The Times adopt the word Beijing instead of Peking.

Japan is considering whether to accede to Guruujia's request to become Joujia. "It's a serious complaint and we'll give consideration to the matter."