US state names in Chinese
Posted by q4s4 on 2008/04/15
I am posting the names of U.S. states in Simplified (Mainland) Chinese characters and their Pinyin equivalents. I found some are really creative in their “sinicizations” (e.g. Connecticut and New York). Others are very abbreviated (e.g. California). When a language pronounces foreign place names differently or uses a completely different name, e.g. in English, Bangkok; in Thai, Krung Thep, the former name is an exonym.
Chinese, more often than not, abbreviates place names to their first two syllables, making some places like South Carolina and New Hampshire almost far removed from their original names, especially since the first words are literally translated or calqued.
I looked up most of the names in the dictionary by primezero.com, a Chinese language specialty site. Each character will take you to that character’s definition in the dictionary if you’re curious about what each one means. By the way, if you don’t read about Pinyin first, chances are you will be pronouncing it wrong if you try reading it like in English.
- Note: the last two characters also mean “sauna”, which implies the climate of this state
Connecticut 康涅狄格 kāng niè dí gé
- Note: the former Soviet republic that is now an independent nation state is 格鲁吉亚 gé lŭ jí yà
Louisiana 路易斯安那 lù yì sī ān nă
Massachusetts 马萨诸塞 mă sà zhū sài (!)
Nebraska 内布拉斯加 nèi bù lā sī jiā
New Hampshire 新罕布什尔 xīn hăn bù shén ĕr
North Carolina 北卡罗来纳 bĕi kă luó lái nà
North Dakota 北达科他 bĕi dá kē tā
Pennsylvania 宾夕法尼亚 bīn xī fă ní yà
South Carolina 南卡罗来纳 nán kă luó lái nà zhōu
South Dakota 南达科他 nán dá kē tā
Texas 德克萨斯 dé kè sà sī (or) 德州 dé zhōu
Washington 华盛顿州 huá shèng dùn zhōu
West Virginia 西弗吉尼亚 xī fú jí ní yà
