Chinese exonyms


When a foreign place name, or toponym, occurs in Chinese text, the problem arises of spelling it in Chinese characters, given the limited phonetics and restrictive phonology of Mandarin Chinese, and the possible meaning of those characters when treated as Chinese words. For example:
Names of foreign nations are sometimes shortened to their first character when used in compounds. For example, the name for Russia in Chinese is 俄罗斯, but the name of the Russian language is 俄语, anything Russian-style is 俄式, and the Russian military is 俄军.
For Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese names, the Chinese exonym is often the Chinese pronunciation of the Korean hanja, Japanese kanji, or ancient Vietnamese Chữ Nôm writing of the toponym. In some cases, especially in Japan, the Chinese pronunciation may be completely unlike the native-language pronunciation.
Countries had been founded or had gained independence after 1949 often have different exonyms used in mainland China and Taiwan due to differences in official standards resulting from the split in government. Exonyms used in mainland China are written in simplified Chinese on this page, and exonyms used in Taiwan are written in traditional Chinese. The exception to this are exonyms for Japanese and Korean place names, which will be written in traditional Chinese.
Additionally, if the country's endonym is not internationally well-known, Chinese will transcribe the English name into Chinese characters.

Australia

Brazil

Cambodia

Canada

Egypt

France

Germany

Haiti

Iceland

The Chinese exonym is a literal translation of the endonym.

India

Indonesia

Iraq

Ireland

Israel

Japan

Jordan

Poland

Portugal

Russia

Saudi Arabia

South Korea

Syria

Turkey

Thailand

United Kingdom

United States

Uzbekistan

Vietnam

Yemen