Japan: What’s in a Name?
I don’t know if anybody else has noticed this, but Japan has changed its name; at least in Japanese. When I came here in the late 1980s, the Japanese were very proud of their country, but they all called it “Nihon“. At some point I became aware of the alternative pronunciation, “Nippon“, but I never heard it used. Now, it’s just the opposite. Nobody says “Nihon” anymore; I only ever hear the more strident and nationalistic chords of “Nippon“. Little kids do it. My smallest students even manage to impart a patriotic ring to the English name of their country by drawing out the first syllable and then really exploding on the second: “Ja-PAN”.
Personally, I think it’s just one more sign of Japan’s creeping nationalism. In his 1982 book, Japan’s Modern Myth
“During World War II, the Japanese military occupation officials in some territories temporarily held by Japan did make limited attempts to introduce courses in Japanese, which at the time they usually insisted upon calling Nippongo, into the curricula of local schools and colleges. (The word Nippongo, with its emphatic consonant sequence -pp- replacing the weak medial -h- of the usual pronunciation as Nihongo, was much favored during the war years because of its more overtly macho acoustic effect. The same was true of the name of the country, which then tended to favor Nippon, rather than the now usual pronunciation Nihon.)”
Well, I’ve never Heard anyone call Nihongo “Nippongo”, but I’m planning to hightail it straight out of the country if I ever do.
