Japanese USA kanji.

From: Bob Clark (bclark_at_NO_SPAMairmail.net)
Date: 06/13/04 

Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 03:37:33 -0500

Japanese USA kanji.

I was looking at the name for the USA a few months ago and noticed the
literal meaning was "rice country". I asked my teacher, and she knew the
kanji immediately, and knew the meaning, but did not have a an explanation
for why the US is a rice country. I did a search on the news group and
found a thread from 97 that said a possible meaning was that the Japanese
equate wheat and grains with rice and prosperity. I also found this on a
kanji clinic page:

"
NOTE:
Have you ever wondered why the United States, known for its potato and bread
consumption, is called ?? (Rice Country) in Japanese? Here's the reason:

??? (ateji) "phonetic substitutes" are kanji used phonetically with little
or no relation to their meanings. The atejionce assigned to the four
syllables of "A-me-ri-ka" were ????. ("ME" is an old reading for ?; the
modern so-called "Chinese readings" for this kanji are "BEI" and "MAI"). ?
has thus come to mean not only "rice," but "America," as well.

? can be seen in a variety ofAmerica-related kanji compounds, such as: ??
(beikoku, U.S.A.), ?? (beigun, American armed forces), ?? (beika, American
currency), ??(tobei, going to America), and ?? (nichibei, Japan and the
U.S.).
"

Is this my answer? Is there anymore to it? Any other possible
explanations?

Regards,

Bob

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