# 中国



## Lotfi MA

Could someone, please, tell me how the name: "China" is pronounced in the Chinese language(s)?

Thanks in anticipation.


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## shivasprogeny

In Mandarin it is "zhong guo" which is pronounced sort of like joong (where the "j" is like "jar") gwah.

Since Chinese is a tonal language the first word should be a high level tone and the second should be a rising tone (kind of like when you ask a question and the pitch rises).  You can listen to it here: forvo.com/word/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD(zhongguo) (sorry I can't do links).

It literally means "middle country."


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## Lotfi MA

Dear Shivasprogeny,

Thank you very much indeed for this perfect answer.


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## Lotfi MA

Could you – or someone else – please, tell me how long China's name: "zhong guo" dates back, and what about the older name that is pronounced sort of like: "Sseen"; when was it used, its origin, and meaning?
Appreciating it in advance.


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## Ajura

Chonggwo that is the right pronounciation...


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## shivasprogeny

Lotfi MA said:


> Could you – or someone else – please, tell me how long China's name: "zhong guo" dates back, and what about the older name that is pronounced sort of like: "Sseen"; when was it used, its origin, and meaning?
> Appreciating it in advance.



There's actually a really good wikipedia article on this very topic! 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_China


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## dumdum33

I am curious to know whether or not there is a word in chinese for "China."  

In the U.S. if we were talking about Italy, we say Italy.  But in Italy if they were talking about their country they would say "Italia" because that is how you say it in italian.  Spain would refer to their country as "España."

So how would a person in China refer to their country? Would they just call it "China?"


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## pixEl2lifEx109

Well, in Chinese we would say 中国, pronounced zhong guo, meaning central nation.


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## dumdum33

Thank you! But how do you pronounce that? Is it something along the lines of "Chung-gwo"??


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## pixEl2lifEx109

In Mandarin Chinese, the pinyin is zhong guo and it's pronounced kinda like "joong gwo".  If you looked up precisely how to pronounce the zh, it's easy to pronounce the rest.


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## snowyau

pixEl2lifEx109 said:


> Well, in Chinese we would say 中国, pronounced zhong guo, meaning central nation.



Probably - "middle kingdom"; or as JRR Tolkien might put it, Middle Earth . The Chinese regarded themselves as the centre of the universe.

There's a good explanation here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_China#China


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## alphabetman

Not ironically, the African word CONGO would appear to mean the same thing. The ending -GO corresponds to the Chinese GUO - and the Greek GIA ( as in GEO-graphy or PANGEA ). The Con-go is also a middle land, in Africa. There seems to have actually been a pre-Babel language. The G-sound emanates from the CENTER of the body - the GUT. Things GROW ( another G-word) from the center of the Earth outwards, in the mind's eye of our forefathers, hence words like gush and geiser as well. We are all connected.


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## indigoduck

pixEl2lifEx109 said:


> Well, in Chinese we would say 中国, pronounced zhong guo, meaning central nation.


 
Bear in mind, "Zhong Guo" is the mandarin pronounciation.

The Cantonese pronounciation varies a little bit but is very similar and is pronounced "Zhong Guok" - take the mandarin pronounciation and add a "tailing K" to the end of "Guo" (slightly different accent as well, of course! but much simpler than the 2 dialects below).

But for example, the Foochow dialect of Fukian (闽东) province pronounces it quite different entirely.

中 Zhong is pronounced "Dyun" - the closest word in english would be the word "Dune" in sand dunes...

国 Guo is pronounced "Ngo" (nasal sound) similar to 我 in cantonese. This sound doesn't exist in english. In textbooks, they try to use the "ng" sound in the english word "thing", and then attach an "O" sound to it.

In Hakka (which closely represents the way chinese was spoken long long time ago), it's pronounced "Tson" "Ngu" - even more complicated to transcribe into English.


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## Ajura

It depends on the chinese language you are talking about.

Kejia (Hakka)
- Romanization:	Chûng-koet
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin:	Zhōngguó
- Wade-Giles:	Chung¹-kuo²
 Listen (help·info)
Min
- Hokkien POJ:	Tiong-kok
Wu
- Romanization:	tson平 koh入
Yue (Cantonese)
- Jyutping:	zung¹ gwok³


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## indigoduck

dumdum33 said:


> I am curious to know whether or not there is a word in chinese for "China."
> 
> In the U.S. if we were talking about Italy, we say Italy. But in Italy if they were talking about their country they would say "Italia" because that is how you say it in italian. Spain would refer to their country as "España."
> 
> So how would a person in China refer to their country? Would they just call it "China?"


 
What in english is "China" refers to the "Qin" dynasty.  The western explorers who visited China visited it during the "Qin" dynasty.


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## berndf

indigoduck said:


> What in english is "China" refers to the "Qin" dynasty.  The western explorers who visited China visited it during the "Qin" dynasty.


Not form the Qin dynasty itself, that was very short lived, just two emperors, about 200B.C. but from the empire of Qin. At that time China was created as a union of smaller empires. One of them was Qin. Actually the "union" was a conquest of the other empires by Qin and the name was for some time used to refer to the unified country as a whole. It is believed that this name was carried to the Middle East and to the West, possibly already in Roman times, by merchants on the Silk Road.


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## alphabetman

land ( guh ) of connections (con )  therefore - is therefore more appropriate. Either way our  pre-babel language code is showing!


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